Disagreements between the United States and Russia cast a shadow over the fate of the mission, whose continuation came on the last day of its mission, which is January 31.
Local and international media reported that Moscow required the Security Council to appoint a new UN envoy to Libya, while Washington wanted to assign US diplomat Stephanie Williams to head the mission on an interim basis.
Compromise
Britain planned to put forward a draft resolution extending the mission’s mandate until September 15, but it withdrew it, after Russia expressed its intention to reject the project and use the “veto” against it.
But in the end, the Russian point of view, which saw the extension of the mission’s mandate until April 30 only, until it became clear to it, passed the political situation in Libya, but it did not agree on the issue of choosing a new head of the mission.
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the former head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, the Slovakian Jan Kubis, resigned from the mission’s leadership in November 2021, citing “technical” issues related to the work mechanism.
Then the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, appointed Williams to the position of Special Adviser on Libya, avoiding a Security Council vote that might hinder her return to the Libyan file again, eight months after leaving her previous position in the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, which she headed as acting. Following the resignation of former President Ghassan Salameh from his position in early March 2020.
The mission is under criticism
Journalist Al-Hussein Al-Misori agrees that the former UN envoy, Jan Kubis, left his position because he felt the absence of the possibility of holding the general elections in Libya on December 24 last, and therefore the mission was no longer able to perform the most important functions entrusted to it, which is to support and support this entitlement.
Al-Misori believes that the name of Williams is proposed to assume the presidency of the mission, as she has extensive knowledge of the Libyan file, and played a major role during the last period in drafting the road map, which at the same time did not succeed, but she is currently continuing, under the title of UN advisor, to hold meetings. With different Libyan parties.
During Monday’s parliament session, a number of deputies directed “stinging” criticism at the United Nations mission because of what they described as a major “interference” in the country’s internal affairs.
The representatives refused to put forward new dates for holding the next elections by the mission, saying that Parliament took the initiative in managing the current transitional phase, and set its perceptions regarding the various tracks.