{"id":15175,"date":"2018-09-15T11:24:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T11:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15175"},"modified":"2018-09-15T11:24:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T11:24:46","slug":"turkey-russia-discord-over-idlib-defers-regime-offensive-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=15175","title":{"rendered":"Turkey-Russia discord over Idlib defers regime offensive, for now"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nNEW YORK: The UN Security Council has urged all Libyans to improve the atmosphere for national elections in a resolution that avoids mentioning the Dec. 10 target date for voting in the restive North African nation.<\/p>\n

\nInstead, the council resolution adopted unanimously notes UN envoy Ghassan Salame\u2019s call \u201cfor parliamentary and presidential elections to be held in Libya as soon as possible, provided the necessary security, technical, legislative and political conditions are in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nLibya descended into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi, who was later killed. The country is now split between rival governments in the east and west, each supported by an array of militias. Salame said last week it has recently lurched from one emergency to another.<\/p>\n

\nOn Tuesday, missiles were fired at Libya\u2019s capital of Tripoli, including the city\u2019s only functioning airport, less than a week after a UN-brokered a cease-fire between rival armed groups. The resolution extends the mandate of the UN political mission in Libya until Sept. 15, 2019. It is has the task of supporting Libya\u2019s political transition, including the organization of elections, as well as human rights monitoring and delivering aid if requested.<\/p>\n

\nOn May 29, rival Libyan leaders met in Paris and tentatively agreed on a roadmap leading to parliamentary and presidential elections on Dec. 10. French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the conference that included Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, head of Libya\u2019s UN-backed government in Tripoli, and Gen. Khalifa Haftar, whose forces dominate eastern Libya, has said elections are crucial to stabilize the country.<\/p>\n

\nWhile France supports the Dec. 10 date for elections, the US, Italy and other European countries see that as too ambitious and are skeptical voting can be held that soon.<\/p>\n

\nLast week, US Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Cohen warned at a Security Council meeting that \u201cimposing false deadlines will backfire\u201d and lead to worse divisions inside Libya.<\/p>\n

\nBritain\u2019s UN ambassador, Karen Pierce, expressed the UK\u2019s support for holding elections this year, but said that \u201cit will be necessary to ensure sufficient political, security and technical preparations are made so that they have the effect of uniting Libya.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAnd it will be important to ensure a robust legal framework is in place and that there is sufficient political consensus to avoid exacerbating existing divisions in Libya,\u201d Pierce said.<\/p>\n

\nThe resolution adopted Thursday strongly backs Salame and recognizes his \u201ckey role\u201d in consulting Libyan parties \u201cto set the constitutional basis for elections and to adopt the necessary electoral laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nThe Security Council again called \u201con all Libyans to improve the atmosphere for national elections by all means possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThese include working toward unification of Libya\u2019s rival military and economic institutions, unifying and strengthening national security forces under the authority of the civilian government, and unifying the Libyan Central Bank, it said.<\/p>\n

\nThe council also stressed that \u201censuring security and defending Libya from terrorism must be the task of unified and strengthened national security forces under the sole authority\u201d of the UN-backed government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK: The UN Security Council has urged all Libyans to improve the atmosphere for national elections in a resolution that avoids mentioning the Dec. 10 target date for voting in the restive North African nation. Instead, the council resolution adopted unanimously notes UN envoy Ghassan Salame\u2019s call \u201cfor parliamentary and presidential elections to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":15176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}