Excerpts from SRSG Leon’s news conference after meetings on Friday in Morocco, 13 March 2015

13 Mar 2015

Excerpts from SRSG Leon’s news conference after meetings on Friday in Morocco, 13 March 2015

“We have had consultations today with the different parties. We continued our work in this dialogue on substantial issues and also on the organization of our work. And after listening both to the participants that are here in Morocco and the ones who have to join in the coming days, the United Nations Mission has proposed to continue to work in the coming days on the different documents and the different elements in these talks with everyone going back to their respective constituencies and to meet again here in Morocco next week on Thursday.

It is a decision intended to allow the ones who will join next week. And let me enhance for these final phase of the talks, this decisive phase of the talks, the House of Representatives has decided to reinforce their team. We believe with this decision we will allow the new group to organize, to prepare well the last phase of these talks and hopefully to produce better results.

We have conveyed to the parties a sense of urgency. Libya has no time. You have heard this many times. The crisis in Libya is deepening in all aspects, in political security, economic and financial aspects. So this is a dialogue, whose purpose is to reach a solution and to reach a solution because Libya cannot wait anymore. The Mission hopes that the parties will come back next Thursday ready to address the final stage of the talks.

As I said the ones who are here did not want to delay the talks. They wanted to continue. We thought if there is a group of new members it is important to give them the time to organize.
It has nothing to do with any political position. Let me enhance this, because this has been a message we received very clearly, it is only linked to their organization of the work and coming here, but not the substantial issues we are discussing.

… All of them have to come to the final stage ready to negotiate that is why it is important to give them a few days. We believe from now till Thursday it is time enough to get strong support, to prepare well their position on every document they have and to be ready to address something as complex, difficult and challenging as national unity government.