The Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Abdoulaye Bathily who resigned on Tuesday, said that “if Libyans were free, they would have been able, through freedom of peaceful assembly, to find a solution.
Bathily considered in a media stakeout at the UN after his resignation that under the pretext of the so-called legitimate institutions, only the leaders have a way to move forward and that the majority of the Libyan people wanted to get out of this chaos.
"They came to me and asked for a formula that goes beyond those leaders who do not want to put an end to the crisis. However, these leaders are supported by their foreign allies in many ways, so under these circumstances there is no way for the United Nations to operate successfully." He explained.
He said that Libyans with good intentions cannot make their voices heard in the political process, adding that there is a lot of talk about a Libyan-Libyan solution, but in reality "what we call the Libyan-Libyan solution is a Libyan solution that suits the group of leaders who do not want to move forward."
Bathily said that the past months have witnessed a deterioration in the situation in Libya because of two main factors, the first is the lack of political will and good faith by the main Libyan actors and the second factor is the emerging international and regional dynamics, considering that Libya today has become a battlefield, given the presence of a renewed and continuous stalemate in Libya and the use of its territory for military confrontations by various actors.
He added that the United Nations cannot move successfully in support of a political process, in the face of leaders who put “their personal interests above the needs of the country.”
According to the resigned UN envoy, “Libya is increasingly on the path toward losing its sovereignty,” although the United Nations Support Mission in Libya tried to avoid this situation.
"We needed the support of all international and regional parties to achieve meaningful results. Unfortunately, against the backdrop of this evolving crisis, we have witnessed parallel tracks taken by various foreign parties, which undermined the efforts of the United Nations." He said.
