UN diplomatic sources confirmed on Tuesday that the UN envoy to Libya, Jan Kubis of Slovakia, abruptly resigned from his post less than a year after he was appointed last January, AFP news agency reported.
The agency added that no official reason has been given for this sudden resignation as it came weeks before Libya’s presidential and parliamentary elections next month.
Jan Kubis’ resignation came a year after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced his appointment as head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
The special envoy to Libya had stressed that all foreign mercenaries and fighters must leave Libya, in accordance with UN resolutions.
“Foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya pose a threat not only to Libya but to the whole region,” Kubis said during a briefing to the UN Security Council on recent developments in Libya.
Jan Kubis officially assumed his duties as the UN secretary-general’s special envoy to Libya beginning on 1 February.
Kubis is diplomatic Slovak, was working for the United Nations Special Coordinator in Lebanon, since January 2019, as it dates to 1952, and holds a degree in international economic relations from the Moscow State Institute of international affairs.
He worked as special representative of the president of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) from 2015 to 2018, the special representative and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) from 2011 to 2015.
Kubis has long experience in the United Nations and abroad in his country, having previously served as director of the OSCE Centre for conflict prevention.
He also worked in the Ministry of foreign affairs of the former Czechoslovakia from 1976 to 1992, prior to his work in the Ministry of foreign affairs in Slovakia, of which he became the permanent representative of Slovakia to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva 1993.
Kubis served as executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe from 2009 to 2011, Minister for foreign affairs of Slovakia from 2006 to 2009, chairperson of the Committee of Ministers from 2007 to 2008, and secretary-general of the organization for security and cooperation in Europe from 1999 to 2005.
Kubis’ appointment as UN envoy to Libya followed the resignations of two former envoys: Ghassan Salama and Nickolay Mladenov.
