The US special envoy to Libya, Richard Norland, said that it was good to have an interim government of technocrats whose sole mission would be leading the country to elections, pointing out to the need to negotiate this step by everyone, including the current government.
Norland said, in an interview with “The Independent Arabia” news website during his visit to Cairo on Saturday, that no one wanted to see another interim government in Libya that will last for years, pointing out the inefficiency of dismissing the government, as happened with Fathi Bashagha. He added that what the UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily proposed and was supported by Washington is for the Presidential Council, the House of Representatives, the High Council of State, Dbeibah and Haftar to sit at the table to agree on a roadmap that would discuss the conditions for candidacy and the government that could lead the country to elections.
The US envoy indicated that the external and internal actors in Libya recognized that the path to the country's stability lied in holding credible elections, and that the countries that previously supported a military approach in Libya found that it wasn't a successful path.
Norland described the clashes that took place in Tripoli this month as a very dangerous issue, while the southern region of the country, where Sudan, Chad and Niger are full of unrest, pointing out that Libya needed to be united and its institutions needed to be unified, especially the army in order to to protect itself. He also said that the US felt that it wanted to play a role to help stabilize Libya again, and believed that it was better to do so through political means, explaining that it was using its influence to try to keep the focus on the political track.
Regarding the reopening of the US embassy in Libya, Norland indicated that the matter is not related to elections, but to the stability of the situation, pointing out that the clashes that resulted in the killing of 55 people in Tripoli last week were a matter of concern. He added that opening their embassy was also related to the financial aspect for good insurance, which is costly, expressing his hope that their embassy would open as soon as possible like most other countries that did reopen their embassies in Tripoli.
