Libyan delegate at UN insists on need to de-militarise Sirte and al-Joufra to maintain ceasefire

03 Septembre 2020

Tripoli, Libya, September 3 (Infosplusgabon) - Libya’s permanent representative to the United-Nations, Taher Mohamed al-Sunni, Wednesday said an efficient and successful ceasefire required that "the regions of Sirte and al-Joufra are de-militarised and that foreign forces and mercenaries leave all Libyan regions".

According to him, the main “objective is to restore full sovereignty on the Libyan soil".

Speaking through videoconferencing in a session of the UN Security Council on the situation in Libya, al-Sunni declared that "the Government of National Accord will no longer make the same mistakes as in the past", underlining that "its army will be ready for any betrayal in the absence of guarantees to implement the ceasefire and to not repeat the aggression".

The Libyan diplomat added that "this time, the Security Council must show seriousness in the materialization of its decisions, activate the ceasefire and oblige formally the other party to do so", and "to punish and hold responsible those who obstruct peace and reject the ceasefire".

Mr al-Sunni underlined that "sovereignty must be restored and that the oil ports and fields must be reopened immediately after it was proved to everybody that the decision to close them was made following foreign instruction".

"Stop playing with the subsistence of the Libyans, since the amount of losses to date reaches about 9 billion dollars, and with serious damages to the infrastructure of installations and oil installations," he said, commenting the effects of the blockade on oil sites in Libya since January by pro-Haftar forces.

He said everybody wondered about the feasibility of negotiations within the framework of the joint 5+5 military commission under the aegis of the United-Nations, since Haftar did not declare his commitment to the deal.

He also expressed misgivings on how to ensure the maintenance of the ceasefire or the non-repetition of the aggression as it happened before the Ghadames conference last year.

"We played our role and now you must play yours," the Libyan delegate to the United-Nations said.

“Today, by listening to the speeches, we note the repetition of appeals for the need to relaunch the 5+5 talks, oil production must resume, the need to respect the ceasefire and the human rights violations must end, but we did not hear what you will do about those who do not conform to it, and the sanctions against them."

Al-Sunni indicated that there was no answer, but instead he heard hostile declarations and an opposition from Haftar’s spokesperson.

He said the spokesperson had rather talked about "the number of violations committed by his forces over the past seventy-two hours, backed by mercenaries and targeting the sites of our Libyan armed forces positioned in western Sirte with Grad missiles".

The Libyan delegate underlined that the respect by the Government of National Accord for the ceasefire was to give a chance to peaceful solutions, "but we reserve ourselves the right to counter-attack and defend ourselves against those attacks and any movement or threat at the appropriate time and place".

Mr al-Sunni also called on the United-Nations to appoint as a matter of urgency an envoy to work to reach a consensus.

This, he noted, was "because there are those who exploit this question to compromise the international efforts, and we don’t see any objection to the proposals presented to nominate a special representative of the Secretary-General and chief of mission".

He also indicated that "the Government of National Accord will not cross fingers before the previous barbaric acts perpetrated by Haftar’s militias” who arrested several citizens of the Qadhadfa tribe in Sirte.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/TFG/GABON2020

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