(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Two rival Libyan factions on Tuesday started new peace talks to deal with the political crisis in Libya by creating a unity government.
The representatives of the Tripoli parliament - General National Congress (GNC) - joined the negotiations with Tobruk-based House of Representatives after boycotting talks last month by not attending two meetings which took place in Morocco.
Since the ouster and death of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in late 2011, Libya has been dogged by lawlessness and frequent clashes between rival groups that have left thousands dead and injured.
The new round was scheduled to start on Monday but it was delayed to Tuesday as GNC delegation did not arrive in Geneva. The talks started late Tuesday with the participation of GNC delegation including Saleh al-Mahsun, deputy president of Libyan General National Congress.
"We are starting a new round of talks with a very clear agenda. This will be on the one hand the 'annexes' and on the other hand the unity government," Bernardino Leon, special representative and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), said in a press conference in UN at Geneva on Tuesday.
"We will work in the coming days on the basis of a timetable, which must necessarily be short. Libya is facing huge challenges. We have discussed these already in the past; you don't need more details on how difficult the situation is in the country," Leon said.
Urging Libyan factions to agree unity government by month-end Leon said, "We are proposing that the parties work in the coming three weeks and try to have agreement on these important two points regarding the annexes and the unity government by the end of August."
"If this were possible - and this will very much depend on the political will and on the creativity, on the wisdom of the parties to bring good names and good proposals to the table - then the endorsement, final voting and signing of the agreement could happen in the first weeks of September so that the final conclusion of this process can be achieved before we have the UN General Assembly," he added.
Noting that all actors are around the table, Leon said, "We are intending to do in the coming three weeks is to discuss the annexes and to discuss the unity government."
"We would like the GNC and all Libyans participating in the process to give the benefit of the doubt to the process." he said.
"What Libya is facing now is deeper chaos and division of the country. So I hope all the Libyan actors will be wise to avoid this scenario, to expedite the talks and to reach an agreement very soon," Leon warned.
Timeline
"I think it is extremely risky to reach October without an agreement, because we will be in a more chaotic situation. This is why it's important to have this timeline and to finalize these discussions in the coming three weeks and then to expedite also the endorsement and voting of the agreement," he said.
The country's stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, each of which boasts its own institutions and military capacities.
Vying for legislative authority are a Tobruk-based House of Representatives and a General National Congress that convenes in Tripoli.
The two assemblies support two rival governments respectively headquartered in the two cities.
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