Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya Abdoulaye Bathily declared on Saturday that he has “the worst job in the world” after accusing the majority of Libyan officials of not wanting to hold the delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.
In an interview to France’s Jeune Afrique, the envoy acknowledged foreign interference in Libya, saying officials were exploiting this to conceal their failures.
The envoy underlined the need to hold elections to produce a unified authority and elect one president and one parliament.
Without this, the country will face more division, he warned.
The problem is that the majority of Libyan leaders don’t want to hold elections and don’t want stability to be restored, Bathily lamented.
They only care about making gains from oil revenues, he charged.
In addition, he said the mistrust between the east-based parliament and the High Council of State had obstructed attempts to draft electoral laws, he said.
He revealed that his attempts to bring together to dialogue parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh, High Council of State President Mohammed Takala, head of the interim Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, head of the Presidential Council Mohammed al-Menfi, and Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar have faced “a lot of resistance.”
Bathily stressed that the UN doesn’t want for the elections to lead to more instability or bloodshed in Libya.
The Libyans must be able to have a voice, but in order to do so, the leaders of this country must decide to assume their responsibilities, he went on to say.
They must cease their constant excuses that foreign meddling in Libya was preventing the crisis from being resolved, he urged.
Moreover, Bathily noted that Libya continues to produce 1.2 million barrels of oil per day, which is a massive amount for a country of 6 million people and which boasts massive capabilities.
Several countries are therefore, concerned about the fate of Libya, he remarked.
Furthermore, Bathily said the conflict that erupted between Israel and Haman on October 7 had further complicated his already difficult mission.
He added that his goal for the withdrawal of Sudanese, Chadian and Nigerien gunmen from Libya became more “complicated” after the eruption of the conflict in Sudan in mid-April.
