US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Saturday that he held “fruitful talks” with UN envoy to Libya Abdoulaye Bathily at the United Nations in New York.
“I applauded the work of the UN Support Mission in Libya, to promote consensus among Libyans and enable elections in 2023,” Blinken said in a tweet.
“The United States stands firmly with the Libyan people in demanding that they finally choose their leaders,” he said.
The UN envoy to Libya arrived in the US on Tuesday to brief the Security Council on the situation in Libya on February 27, following his last briefing in December.
On Thursday evening, the US State Department demanded that it align behind the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily; to facilitate elections in Libya. “Global partners” met in Washington to coordinate efforts on the situation in Libya, State Department adviser Derek Chollet said after the meeting.
In the same context, and in a statement issued by Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egypt welcomed on Friday the adoption by the Libyan House of Representatives of the amendment of the 13th Constitutional Declaration, as an important step in the fulfillment of the necessary frameworks to hold the presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya simultaneously as soon as possible.
This must be under the supervision of a neutral executive authority that upholds the supreme interests of the brotherly Libyan state.
Egypt said it is looking forward to the completion of Libya’s House of Representatives and State Council’s efforts to draft election laws, with approval by the House of Representatives.
The statement reiterated Egypt’s full support for the path of the Libyan/Libyan solution, praising the efforts of the House of Representatives, the only elected legislative body in Libya, and the High Council of State, and its rejection of any foreign dictations on the Libyan brothers or overstepping the role of Libyan institutions in accordance with the terms of reference of the Skhirat Agreement.
Egypt also stressed the need to stop foreign interventions in Libya and the departure of all foreign forces, foreign fighters and mercenaries, and to support the relevant mission of the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, in order to preserve and affirm the sovereignty and stability of Libya.
