UN calls for Eid truce in Libya, warns foreign support fueling conflict

The UN envoy for Libya Ghassan Salame is calling for a truce between warring parties during the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha. (File/Reuters)

• Salame warned the conflict can grow into 'a full-blown civil war' with potentially existential consequences for the country and its neighbors
• The truce should be followed by a high-level meeting of 'concerned countries' to cement the cease-fire, he said

UNITED NATIONS: A United Nations envoy called on Monday for a truce to be declared in Libya around Aug. 10, and warned that an influx of weapons from foreign supporters in violation of an arms embargo was fueling the conflict.
The truce should be declared to mark the Muslim Eid Al-Adha holiday, UN Libya envoy Ghassan Salame told the Security Council, and be accompanied by confidence-building moves like an exchange of prisoners and remains and release of those arbitrarily detained.
Libya has been riven by violence since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
“In the course of the current fighting, serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by all parties have been committed,” Salame told the 15-member Security Council.
“More than ever, Libyans are now fighting the wars of other countries who appear content to fight to the last Libyan and to see the country entirely destroyed in order to settle their own scores,” he said.
“Armed drones, armored vehicles and pickup trucks fitted with heavy armaments, machine guns, recoilless rifles, mortar and rocket launchers, have been recently transferred to Libya with the complicity and indeed outright support of foreign governments,” Salame said.
Following a truce, Salame proposed a high-level meeting of concerned countries be convened to “cement the cessation of hostilities, work together to enforce the strict implementation of the arms embargo to prevent the further flow of weapons to the Libyan theater; and promote strict adherence to international humanitarian and human rights law by Libyan parties.”
He said this should then be followed by a meeting of leading and influential Libyans to agree on a way forward out of the conflict.
“This triple action will require consensus in this council and among the member states who exert influence on the ground,” Salame said.
In a statement earlier this month, the UN Security Council called for the warring parties to commit to a cease-fire and urged other countries not to intervene or exacerbate the conflict.
Britain’s UN Ambassador Karen Pierce said the council would discuss Salame’s proposals to work out how best the body could support the United Nations.
The Security Council has struggled to unify on how to deal with the renewed violence.