UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — The talks on the resolution of the Libyan crisis will resume on March 19 in Morocco after a short pause aimed at giving the parties involved more time for extra consultations, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has announced.
"Substantive and procedural issues on the way forward were discussed. In order to allow more time for consultations, UNSMIL has proposed to resume the dialogue sessions on Thursday 19 March 2015 in Morocco," UNSMIL said in a statement published on its website on Friday, after a meeting with participants to the Libyan political dialogue.
Last week, UNSMIL announced that the UN-mediated talks on the Libyan crisis had been postponed in order to give the parties involved enough time to discuss the way forward with their delegations.
On March 5, the UN Security Council extended the UNSMIL mandate, due to expire on March 13, through the end of the month, amid ongoing violence in the country. A day earlier, the Head of UNSMIL Bernardino Leon told the Security Council that the situation on the ground in Libya is deteriorating rapidly, stressing that the political crisis in the country needs to be resolved as soon as possible and a unity government needs to be created.
Libya is currently facing its worst wave of violence since the beginning of the civil war prompted by the 2011 overthrow of long-standing leader Muammar Gaddafi. There are now two rival governments in the country. Government forces are also fighting rebel groups, including Islamic State-affiliated militants.
According to UNSMIL, the UN-mediated talks are conducted along several tracks, which include meetings between representatives of Libya's political parties and political activists, representatives of municipalities, as well as armed groups and tribal and societal personalities.
President of the UN Security Council for March Francois Delattre of France has said that it is unclear whether the peace talks will end before the renewed UNSMIL mandate expires on March 31.
