Muhammed Semiz
23 June 2021•Update: 23 June 2021
ISTANBUL
Libya will bring up an initiative aimed at national reconciliation and unification of the army at the Second Berlin Conference due to open Wednesday.
In her speech published Tuesday on the Foreign Ministry's website, Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush gave information on the issues that the Libyan government would bring to the agenda at the conference.
Mangoush said the initiative would focus on the items of the roadmap decided by the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.
Reminding that since the first Berlin Conference on Libya, the executive has been unified, a cease-fire agreement was signed and the coastal road was opened, she said there was a slowdown in the implementation of other items of the roadmap.
She went on to say that the initiative would include the initiation of a comprehensive national reconciliation and the holding of general and presidential elections on Dec. 24.
The initiative also aims to unite the Libyan army under a single command and to activate the cease-fire agreement and would also focus on establishing executive mechanisms to solve security and economic problems, she noted.
Held under the auspices of the United Nations and Germany, the Second Berlin Conference will be attended by the head of Libya’s Presidential Council, Mohammed al-Menfi, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, UN Special Envoy to Libya Jan Kubis and the foreign ministers of the participating countries.
The conference seeks to evaluate the progress made in establishing peace in conflict-ridden Libya and efforts aimed at maintaining security in the country.
The event is expected to emphasize the necessity of holding parliamentary and presidential elections on Dec. 24 as scheduled and the withdrawal of foreign forces and mercenaries from the country.
Participants are also expected to reiterate the call for compliance with the arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council on Libya and to take binding decisions to unify security forces in the country.
Berlin hosted the first conference on the Libyan crisis on Jan. 19.
On Sunday, Libya’s national unity government said it will be represented at the conference by Dbeibeh and Mangoush.
In February, a UN-led Libya forum voted on an interim authority in Libya, choosing Mohammed al-Menfi as the head of a three-member Presidency Council and Dbeibeh as prime minister.
Libyans hope the new unity government will end years of civil war that have engulfed the country since the ouster and killing of strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011.
