The Security Council extended Tuesday the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya one more year as Russia abstained from voting on the resolution.

The spokesman for the UN Secretary General said the leadership of the UNSMIL will see the appointment of a new head to replace Ghassan Salame who resigned last March.

The Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed Stephenie Williams as an acting head of UNSMIL till a new head is selected.

Local media outlets in Libya said the Security Council had appointed the former Bulgarian Foreign Minister, Nicolai Miladinov, as the new Head of UNSMIL.

Libya envoy Ghassan Salame resigned last March for health reasons and since then, dispute between the US and other countries led to halting the naming of a replacement to Salame.

Even when Guterres announced that the former Algerian Foreign Minister Ramthan Lemamra was in the run for the post, the US prevented him from being appointed and this act was also repeated with a new candidate, a former Guinean Minister.

The US called for splitting the role of the UNSMIL Head and Special Envoy to be a political envoy and a head: two different figures as it is done in Cyprus or UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).