Hassan Al-Warfalli (Benghazi)
On Wednesday, the US Deputy UN Envoy to Libya, Stephanie Khoury, presented a briefing to the UN Security Council on developments in the situation in Libya since she assumed responsibility, in which she touched on the causes of the political conflict and its effects on the economic and military tracks in the country, according to what a UN source confirmed in statements to Al-Ittihad. ». The source confirmed that during the briefing session, Stephanie Khoury will address the details of her meetings with the political and military parties and components in Libya, since she assumed responsibility, and will address the impact of the political stagnation on the economic path in light of the Libyan people’s suffering from the lack of cash liquidity, due to the conflict between the National Unity Government (the recognized internationally) and the government of Osama Hammad (parallel government) appointed by the House of Representatives.
The source indicated that the briefing session in the UN Security Council aims to restore international momentum to the situation in Libya with the recent decline in the international community’s interest in the situation in the country, with the deterioration of the situation in the Middle East region and the focus on the situation in Ukraine, explaining that the UN mission is unable to present any ideas. It is time to resolve the crisis, with the position of UN envoy vacant after the resignation of Senegalese Abdoulaye Batelli.
This comes in conjunction with four countries competing for the position of the new UN envoy to Libya, after the failure of the African experiment led by the resigned envoy Abdullah Batelli, with there being chances that an Arab person will take over the position, following the failure of the previous envoys, specifically the American Stephanie Williams, the Slovakian Jan Kubis, and finally the Senegalese Batelli. .
A Libyan diplomatic source confirmed that Tunisian Marwan Al-Abbasi is one of the candidates for the position of UN envoy. He is the former governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia and holds a doctorate from the University of Paris I. He has been a senior economist at the World Bank since January 2008, and in 2012 he was appointed director of the World Bank’s office in Libya.
While Algeria is pushing former Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra to assume the position of UN envoy, where he served as his country’s foreign minister from July 2021 to March 2023, then since last November he became a special representative of the Secretary-General in Sudan, and his chances remain weak as a result of his country’s biased position toward one of the Libyan parties.
Among the four candidates is Christian Buck, a German diplomat who is making a second bid for this position, after throwing his hat for the first time in the United Nations arena two years ago. He served as his country’s ambassador to Tripoli between 2016 and 2018, and now holds the position of Germany’s special envoy to Libya. .
The source pointed out that the fourth prominent candidate is Mohamed Al-Hassan Ould Labat, a Mauritanian law professor who currently holds the position of Chief of Staff of the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, who does not rule out his support.
The source indicated in statements to Al-Ittihad that the appointment of American Stephanie Khoury, last March, to the position of Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General responsible for political affairs, greatly weakened the possibility of another Western diplomat becoming its chief at the head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya. He stressed that Stephanie Khoury will have a greater chance of assuming the position in the future, especially since the next UN envoy failed to find a solution to the Libyan crisis.
In western Libya, the state of security instability and tension returned in the city of Zawiya during the past hours, after the armed militias assassinated the young man Abdul Bari Abu Aouba in front of his house, in light of the inability of the security services to confront the crimes committed by the armed formations, according to what a Libyan security source confirmed to “the Union”. The source pointed out that the ongoing systematic assassinations over the past months weaken any moves to establish security and stability in the city of Zawiya, in light of the raging conflict between armed militias involved in illegal immigration crimes to Europe.
Economically, the National Oil Corporation announced, on Tuesday, that crude oil production had reached 1,254,000 barrels per day, adding that condensate production during the last 24 hours reached 54,141 barrels per day, and natural gas 200,483 barrels equivalent.
On June 11, the Corporation announced a plan to drill 121 new wells to explore and exploit natural oil and gas resources in the year 2024, noting that maintenance will be carried out for about 1,335 other wells, to ensure the sustainability of oil production.
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