The Prime Minister of the parallel government, Osama Hammad, said that the continuation of wrong practices by the resigned UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily had completely undermined reconciliation and dialogue efforts, while at the same time expressing his welcome for “assigning Bathily's deputy, Stephanie Khoury, as the Head United Nations Support Mission in Libya.
Bathily criticized in his last briefing at the Security Council before he resigned as UN envoy to Libya "selfishness of the current leaders" in Libya, noting that there is a deliberate refusal by the Libyan parties to hold elections, with a stubborn desire to postpone them indefinitely.
Regarding the obstacles that hindered his call for a five-party dialogue table, which did not include Hammad’s government, Bathily said that adding a separate seat at the dialogue table, for delegations from the government supported by the House of Representatives, would give an official character to the divisions prevailing in Libya.
But Hammad considered in his statement that this proposal was not surprising, since Bathily “had a limited outlook on dealing with all parties,” and “deliberately ignored that the Libyan government (the parallel government) is the legitimate government in the country as it was granted confidence by the House of Representatives.”
Hammad indicated that Bathily's briefing as a whole reflects the reality of his inability to perform his work over his tenure, stressing that his government still supports any local, regional or international efforts whose primary goal is to reunite Libyans, end the state of institutional division, as well as support reconciliation efforts.
Hammad also expressed his government’s welcome to assigning the Deputy Head of UNSMIL, Stephanie Khoury, to the duties of the Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, saying he hopes that it will be responsible and impartial, that it will move away from personal tendencies and interests, and that it will follow a policy that unites Libyans on a common word and not a policy of supporting division.
