New round of Libyan political dialogue underway

A new round of talks had kicked off to address the Libyan conflict which has been raging since leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011, a United Nations official said here Tuesday.

"We are glad to see that all actors are around the table," Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Bernardino Leon said, explaining that "what we are doing today is starting a new round of talks on the annexes and the unity government as well as starting the convergence of tracks by bringing the political parties together."

Among these are what Leon labelled the Skhirat group with members of parliament and representatives from civil society, together with the women's group, the security and tribal tracks.

"We hope that in the coming two to three weeks it will possible to have complete interaction with all the tracks," he said, adding that the security track's participation and input had been important to to stabilize the situation in the West, and that he was looking forward to having more interaction with the army and the different actors in eastern parts of the country.

"Libya is facing huge challenges," Leon stressed, while outlining an ideal timeframe which would see an agreement reached on both the annexes and the unity government by the end of August.

If this is achieved, the special representative said that the endorsement, voting, and signing of the agreement could happen in the first weeks of September and that the final conclusion of the process could be accomplished before the opening of the 70th UN General Assembly.

Leon warned, however, that this timetable was a long shot as much of the success of the political dialogue depended on the political will and creativity of the parties involved.

"I think that listening to everybody and addressing the concerns of all the parties has been the reason for the limited success we have had so far, so we will continue to listen to everybody," he said.

The UN has brokered several rounds of dialogues between the conflicting parties since last September, but clashes have persisted despite a truce struck by the warring factions.