Leon Hopes to start Thursday discussions on candidates' names for future Libyan government

16 Sep 2015

Leon Hopes to start Thursday discussions on candidates' names for future Libyan government

Press conference of Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya Bernardino Leon on Wednesday evening, 16 September 2015, in Skhirat, Morocco

Good evening. We have spent another day of consultations with the different delegations. The ones that are here, the ones that are not here and after deliberation with all the participants, UNSMIL has considered that the moment has come tomorrow for expediting our talks and proposing that we start the discussion on the candidates for the national unity government.

We hope that all the parties will understand, first of all, the wish of the Libyan people. We have received, if not hundreds, maybe even thousands, of messages from Libyans, normal citizens, from all over the country insisting that they want all of us to finalise this work by the celebration of Eid. So, without impositions, in a spirit of cooperation, in a spirit of working together to overcome the crisis in Libya we very much hope that all the parties will be ready to start this discussion by tomorrow. We have still two, three days ahead of us, and it is important that we use them to make progress in these talks and to try to be ready as we have reiterated by the 20th of September. Today, is the anniversary of the death of one of the heroes in Libyan history, the fighter against the occupation, the colonization, Omar Al-Mukhtar, who was hanged on 16 September 1931. He has been a reference for all the Libyans - many of the brigades during the revolution were called Omar Al-Mukhtar, to pay tribute to his legacy - and maybe today is a day to remember his legacy and to remind the Libyans that it is important not to miss this opportunity.