Libya: UN Envoy Salamé Discusses Reviving Skhirat Agreement

Ghassan Salame, dean of The Paris School of International Affairs, attends a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich
Ghassan Salame, dean of The Paris School of International Affairs, attends a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich
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Libya: UN Envoy Salamé Discusses Reviving Skhirat Agreement

Ghassan Salame, dean of The Paris School of International Affairs, attends a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich
Ghassan Salame, dean of The Paris School of International Affairs, attends a session at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos January 24, 2014. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

United Nations envoy to Libya Ghassan Salamé renewed his call for amending the ‘Skhirat Agreement’ after a stalemate following the political parties' meeting in Tunis on October 21 in an attempt to revive the agreement.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Abdullah Balik told Asharq Al-Awsat that the move was “an attempt to bring the views closer before the elections.”

Salamé met with the Libya’s eastern-based House of Representatives (HoR) and the Tripoli-based Higher Council of State (HCS) to agree on a mechanism for selecting a new presidential council.

"The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Ghassan Salamé, met with the heads of the HoR and HSC Dialogue Committees, AbdelSalam Nasiyeh and Musa Farraj at the UN compound in Tripoli," the Mission tweeted earlier.

"He received an update on the two Councils efforts to reconcile their views and proceed in harmony," the Mission added.

The meeting discussed the need for the two Councils to agree on the mechanism of choosing the new presidential council and forming a unified executive authority.

"The political process in Libya is frozen and threatened by failure because of the differences of political parties," said a House of Representatives for the eastern city of Benghazi member Abu Bakir Baaira.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat he explained that the UN envoy was trying to "reach out to scattered political parties."

He added that “holding parliamentary and presidential elections in Libya this year is not easy.”

Given rising difficulties, Baaira said that it drove Salamé to search for a post-agreement recovery phase.

Salamé made his remarks during a meeting with Heads of the Dialogue Committees of both parties in the capital Tripoli.

In November 2017, the Higher Council of State rejected a proposal by the United Nations to amend the political agreement, threatening to hold early elections within six months.



Israeli Missile Hits Gaza Children Collecting Water

A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israeli Missile Hits Gaza Children Collecting Water

A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian woman reacts as a young man carries the body of her child killed in an Israeli strike, in front of Gaza City's Maamadani (Baptist) hospital on July 13, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

At least eight Palestinians, most of them children, were killed and more than a dozen were wounded in central Gaza when they went to collect water on Sunday, local officials said.

The Israeli military said the missile had intended to hit an Islamic Jihad militant in the area but that a malfunction had caused it to fall "dozens of meters from the target".

"The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved civilians," it said in a statement, adding that the incident was under review.

The strike hit a water distribution point in Nuseirat refugee camp, killing six children and injuring 17 others, said Ahmed Abu Saifan, an emergency physician at Al-Awda Hospital.

Water shortages in Gaza have worsened sharply in recent weeks, with fuel shortages causing desalination and sanitation facilities to close, making people dependent on collection centers where they can fill up their plastic containers.

Hours later, 12 people were killed by an Israeli strike on a market in Gaza City, including a prominent hospital consultant, Ahmad Qandil, Palestinian media reported. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack.

Gaza's health ministry said on Sunday that more than 58,000 people had been killed since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, with 139 people added to the death toll over the past 24 hours.

Negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire appeared to be deadlocked, with the two sides divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave, Palestinian and Israeli sources said at the weekend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to convene ministers late on Sunday to discuss the latest developments in the talks, an Israeli official said.

The indirect talks over a US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire are being held in Doha, but optimism that surfaced last week of a looming deal has largely faded, with both sides accusing each other of intransigence.

Netanyahu in a video he posted on Telegram on Sunday said Israel would not back down from its core demands - releasing all the hostages still in Gaza, destroying Hamas and ensuring Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel.