Africa

Africa

Tripoli faction seeks relaunch of Libya talks, says U.N. envoy biased

05 November 2015 22:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Libya's self-proclaimed government in Tripoli wants a relaunch of U.N.-sponsored talks aimed at ending the country's civil war because it says the outgoing U.N. envoy is biased in favor of an internationally recognized rival administration in the east, APA reports quoting Reiters.

The chief negotiator for the Tripoli-based government said United Nations envoy Bernardino Leon had demonstrated his bias by accepting a post in the United Arab Emirates, a country Tripoli sees as backing its rival.

After months of talks, Libya's two warring factions remain deadlocked over a U.N.-proposed national unity government and Leon, a Spanish diplomat, now plans to quit in December to take up a post at the Emirates Diplomatic Academy.

"This impacts the track of the dialogue, of course," the Tripoli faction's chief negotiator Awad Abdulsadek told Reuters.

"The replacement of Leon should start all over again, now we know Leon was biased in favor of one of the sides."

Britain's Guardian newspaper, citing emails it said came from Leon, said the diplomat was first offered the UAE post in June and that this called into question his impartiality. Leon told the paper there was no conflict of interest.

Tripoli believes the UAE, along with Egypt, is providing military support to the rival government in eastern Libya led by Abdullah al-Thinni.

U.S. officials said last year the UAE and Egypt had staged air strikes against Libyan Islamists, though Egypt publicly denied this and a senior UAE official suggested the allegations had been promoted by anti-UAE Islamists.