Speaking to Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah, former Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Ghassan Salame said internal actors mainly hinder the political process in Libya from moving forward, explaining that external powers were primarily defending their interests in Libya, but they must have realized that Libya's unity would preserve their interests.
Salame noted that people overestimated the role of external powers whenever it came to Libya saying that an internal force "vetoes any unification movement because they fear losing their advantages if unification occurs, and they feel that unity means losing the process for them."
Salame indicated that during his time in Libya, he worked to achieve three goals, the first of which was to allow oil production to ensure the livelihood of Libyans, in addition to a ceasefire, and maintaining the unity of Libyan state institutions as much as possible, noting that the most difficult part was ensuring the third point, explaining that whenever the unification of institutions approached, an alliance of forces came and prevented the mediator from moving in this direction, whether it was reunifying the two governments, elections, or maintaining the unity of the judiciary.
Salame stressed that achieving economic stability through oil production and relative security is more important at the present time than the more complex political file.
