The Arab League Chief, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, and Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General to Libya, Stephanie Williams, discussed the latest developments in the war-torn Arab country on Sunday.
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The Arab League chief and the UN diplomat agreed on the importance of building on the joint call for the cease-fire declared earlier in the month by the two rival governments in Libya, the Cairo-based pan-Arab organisation said in a statement.
Aboul-Gheit reiterated the Arab League’s position that seeks a comprehensive settlement for the Libyan crisis through resuming negotiations to reach a permanent cease-fire in Libya under UN sponsorship and supervision, according to the statement.
Earlier in the day, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, held similar talks with Williams on the latest developments in Libya.
The UN envoy’s visit to Cairo came after a week of popular protests in Libya’s capital Tripoli calling for a major government reshuffle to deal with crises including poor services and lengthy electricity blackouts.
On Aug. 21, a call for cease-fire was separately announced by two key rivals in Libya: Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, head of the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), and Aguila Saleh, speaker of the east-based parliament that supports the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar.
Serraj and Saleh vowed to end all hostilities in Libya and called for presidential and parliamentary elections and resumption of oil exports.
Oil-rich Libya has been locked in a civil war since the ouster and killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The situation escalated in 2014, splitting power between two rival governments: the GNA based in Tripoli and a government in the north-eastern city of Tobruk allied with the LNA.
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