Excerpts from SRSG for Libya Bernradino Leon Press Conference in Skhirat, Morocco, Tuesday 06 October 2015

Bernardino Leon:

I think what I can tell you today is that this last Friday we had a very special moment in the Libyan national dialogue. After one year working together, all the Libyan participants and all the international community members that are supporting these talks, friends of Libya, countries that are interested in peace and prosperity in Libya were maybe for the first time together sending a very strong message of support to the Libyan people.

We have an agreement. This agreement is final. This agreement is balanced, and this agreement is a great opportunity for Libya. And so, on the basis of this agreement, it is high time to agree on a unity government as the only remaining point to make this agreement a comprehensive agreement that will represent, will be the home of all the Libyans.

This was an extremely important meeting last Friday. We immediately came back to Skhirat, and we have been working since then. And we have very good news today because as you know the last participant in the dialogue that had to provide names and fully participate in this discussion was the GNC, and the GNC tomorrow morning at 10 will have a session to propose these names. In the meantime, we have consultations with the other participants in the dialogue. We have been working for long hours yesterday and today. We will still work for long hours tonight. And we are very hopeful that, taking into account what is at stake for Libya, for the Libyan people, for those 2.5 million Libyans that are suffering war, that are suffering humanitarian problems as has been reported by the United Nations humanitarian agencies, we are really hopeful that the GNC will take this very important decision for the future of their people and tomorrow we will have these names, and that tomorrow, sometimes in the afternoon-evening, it will be possible to announce a proposal for a national unity government. So, it is the intention of the United Nations to listen to all the Libyans, to make a proposal that will be coherent with these proposals and suggestions from the Libyans but also to do what the international community, what the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban ki-Moon, asked all of us to do last Friday: to finish the agreement and to finish the government this week.

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Well, I think that the prospect is good. As I said, it is not a matter of optimism. It is a matter of, first of all, you have seen I’m sure the pictures of what happened last Friday. So you had there people that have been fighting this year. They were sitting together and they were listening to the messages of the international community and they are here working with us. And as I said after the meeting what we have now that the GNC is going to decide tomorrow. I understand that they are having this session to propose names. so I hope they are all well aware of the situation in the country, of the great opportunity and we are really hopeful that the decision will be to give us names so that we can complete this list of five names. This is what we have to include in Annex No 1. The only element pending in the agreement is Annex No. 1, is these five names of the Presidential Council in the agreement. So, I think we have a list of good news in the last days and it is on the basis of this good news we very much hope that tomorrow we will be able to complete this by reaching this agreement.

Of course, we don’t need, we are not waiting for the GNC to give us all the names. As you know, both the HoR and GNC will have candidates for, and this is what they are expected to do, and they can do according to the terms of these negotiations. Each one will propose and will mutually accept a deputy prime minister and then together with the other participants they will try to propose a consensus prime minister and two senior ministers that will accompany them in this group of five.
So, we can have already a clear picture of what the others can accept and we hope to have tomorrow a clear picture of what the GNC can accept and can propose. So, it could be possible to make this announcement tomorrow evening and this is what we expect to do and this is what we will encourage them to do.
We are really at the very end, and we have, we need this final step from the GNC, and I hope they will do it.

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I do. I have a much clearer picture, if not about the five, at least about the profiles and the options, which are not infinite. It is a concrete list of names. We have heard a lot, even from different people. You know that in Libya there are no secrets. Everything is in the social media. I think we have a reasonable idea. But of course you will allow me to very discrete today not to disclose any of these names. But just to tell you that I think at this point everybody is trying to propose names for a government that will be able to work together, people that can be efficient in their jobs and that can be part of a team, because as I have said many times the problems in Libya cannot be solved by one person or two. This is why we are proposing this list of names. But I insist, I think we have quite a complete picture of what the expectation and the possibilities.