SKHIRAT, MOROCCO // There would be no more negotiations on a UN peace plan and it was time to take it or leave it, UN special envoy to Libya told the country’s warring parties on Tuesday.
As talks in Skhirat, Morocoo, ended ahead of Eid Al Adha, Bernardino Leon told delegates from Libya’s rival parliaments that when they returned he expected a straight yes or no answer.
Libya has had two parliaments and two governments since August last year when militia seized the capital Tripoli prompting the government recognised by most of the international community to take refuge in the east.
Mr Leon has been trying to come up with a compromise between the conflicting claims of the two administrations that will allow the formation of a united government to tackle the rise of militancy and people smuggling across the Mediterranean to Europe.
But successive proposals have met with objections from one side or the other, and the Spanish diplomat said that the latest plan was the final one and there would be no more redrafting.
“We have now a text, which is a final text ... now it’s up to the parties and participants in the dialogue to react to this text but not in terms of adding more comments or getting back with something to negotiate,” Mr Leon said.
“It’s the moment for them ... after a process that has been longer than we all expected ... to say yes we want to work together.’
He said the parties can refuse and reject the proposal “but in this case they will also be choosing uncertainty, choosing difficulties working with the international community”.
* Associated Press