The United Nations called for international monitors to support a fragile ceasefire in Libya, in the hope that foreign fighters will leave and the country can begin moving forward after almost a decade of war.

The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) participants have agreed to form a 15-member advisory committee next week in order to end the impasse of selecting mechanism to elect new executive authority.

Libya began 2020 with a full-blown war, as a result of the now failed military offensive by Khalifa Haftar, eastern commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), which he launched on 4 April 2019.

UNSMIL reported today that its Acting Head, Stephanie Williams, facilitated today the second virtual meeting of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum’s (LPDF) Legal Committee.

UNSMIL welcomed what it called the ‘‘remarkable success’’ on 25 December of the exchange of prisoners from both the contesting Libyan sides under the supervision of the Joint Military Commission (5+5), and thanks to the good offices of the tribal sheikhs and elders.

Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov has told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres he will be unable to take up the role as United Nations Libya envoy next year due to “personal and family reasons,” a UN spokesman said on Tuesday, reports Reuters.

In a virtual meeting of the Libyan political dialogue forum yesterday, special representative Stephanie Williams launched the legal committee charged with the necessary arrangements for the upcoming national elections.

Libya’s internationally recognized parliament, the House of Representatives (HoR), based in Benghazi, is to prepare an alternative political roadmap to that being worked on by the UNSMIL-brokered Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF).

According to a statement issued by the United Nation’s Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Special Representative Williams convened a virtual meeting of the Libyan political dialogue forum that culminated in the establishment of the legal committee for the 2021 elections.

The UN Security Council approved on 15 December the proposal from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to appoint Bulgarian Nickolay Mladenov, currently UN Middle East envoy, as the new special envoy to Libya.