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Saleh, Bathily Discuss Libyan Elections

Speaker Aguila Saleh meets with UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily. (Media Center of the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives on Facebook)
Speaker Aguila Saleh meets with UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily. (Media Center of the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives on Facebook)
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Saleh, Bathily Discuss Libyan Elections

Speaker Aguila Saleh meets with UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily. (Media Center of the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives on Facebook)
Speaker Aguila Saleh meets with UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily. (Media Center of the Speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives on Facebook)

Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily met Saturday with the Libyan House of Representatives (HoR) Speaker Aguila Saleh to discuss efforts to hold elections.

Bathily met with Saleh at his office in the city of Al Qubbah where they discussed the political updates, specifically the efforts to hold the parliamentary and presidential elections.

They also tackled the outcomes of the meetings of the Libyan 6+6 Joint Committee for Preparing Electoral Laws.

Saleh stressed the importance of forming a unified government that would hold the elections, while Bathily urged more efforts and consultation to stage the polls, said a statement from the speaker’s press office.

Meanwhile, armed forces in deployed heavily in the capital Tripoli Saturday, apparently to prevent any further protests against the interim Government of National Unity over dismissed Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush's meeting with Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Italy last month.

Muhammad Takala, the new president of the High Council of State, received a phone call from Hamas leader Ismail Hanieh, who expressed the Palestinians’ gratitude for Libya’s stances that reject normalizing ties with Israel.

Hanieh hailed the stances of the High Council of State and the official institutions, according to a statement by the Council.

For his part, Takala underlined the firm Libyan stance toward the Palestinian cause.

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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he would travel to Syria on Friday to encourage the country's transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by insurgents, and appealed on Europe to review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed.
Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome on Thursday of foreign ministry officials from five countries, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
The aim, he said, is to coordinate the various post-Assad initiatives, with Italy prepared to make proposals on private investments in health care for the Syrian population.
Going into the meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their European counterparts, Tajani said it was critical that all Syrians be recognized with equal rights. It was a reference to concerns about the rights of Christians and other minorities under Syria’s new de facto authorities of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HT.
“The first messages from Damascus have been positive. That’s why I’m going there tomorrow, to encourage this new phase that will help stabilize the international situation,” Tajani said.
Speaking to reporters, he said the European Union should discuss possible changes to its sanctions on Syria. “It’s an issue that should be discussed because Assad isn’t there anymore, it’s a new situation, and I think that the encouraging signals that are arriving should be further encouraged,” he said.
Syria has been under deeply isolating sanctions by the US, the European Union and others for years as a result of Assad’s brutal response to what began as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and spiraled into civil war.
HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.
The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of a Syrian opposition leader whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.
Syria’s new leaders also have been urged to respect the rights of minorities and women. Many Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population before Syria’s civil war, either fled the country or supported Assad out of fear of insurgents.