{"id":195325,"date":"2021-07-17T00:35:07","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T22:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/statement-by-foreign-minister-heiko-maas-on-the-occasion-of-the-un-security-council-meeting-on-libya?lang=en"},"modified":"2021-07-17T00:35:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T22:35:07","slug":"statement-by-foreign-minister-heiko-maas-on-the-occasion-of-the-un-security-council-meeting-on-libya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/statement-by-foreign-minister-heiko-maas-on-the-occasion-of-the-un-security-council-meeting-on-libya\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement by Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on the occasion of the UN Security Council Meeting on Libya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/b9209fb96b45e36\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/b9209fb96b45e36\" alt=\"Germany - Federal Foreign Office\" style=\"max-width:500px\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/download\/b9209fb96b45e36\">Download logo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>During the past year, Libya has come a long way towards peace and unity:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An interim executive authority has been selected and approved by the Libyan House of Representatives.<\/li>\n<li>Military representatives from both sides have agreed to a ceasefire.<\/li>\n<li>And the oil shutdown has been lifted, providing an economic lifeline for the Libyan people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We owe this progress to the Libyans, who want to take their country&rsquo;s future into their own hands.<\/p>\n<p>And we owe it to the United Nations, which has shown outstanding support for Libya.<\/p>\n<p>And we owe it to Libya&rsquo;s international supporters, who have been working together, including through the Berlin Process.<\/p>\n<p>At the Second Berlin Conference, held on 23rd June, we were able to advance our joint agenda.<\/p>\n<p>First and foremost, by inviting the representatives of Libya to the conference table. The interim executive authority with Prime Minister Dbeiba played a key role in all the preparations and negotiations &ndash; a crucial step towards full Libyan ownership.<\/p>\n<p>Second, all participants are recommitted to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national unity of Libya.<\/p>\n<p>There was broad agreement that &ndash; in line with the Libyan Ceasefire Agreement and Security Council Resolutions &ndash; all foreign fighters, forces and mercenaries have to leave the country. We now need to find a way to make this happen &ndash; without any delay.<\/p>\n<p>Third, all conference participants reaffirmed the need to hold free, fair and inclusive elections set for 24th December. Because Libyans must finally be able to make their voices heard.<\/p>\n<p>Distinguished members of the Security Council,<\/p>\n<p>We now have a chance to build on this work. That is why I am asking you today to support the implementation of the conclusions of the Second Berlin Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Moving forward, we are also counting on the continued leadership of Special Envoy J&aacute;n Kubi&scaron; and his team to push for elections on the agreed date in December.<\/p>\n<p>We regret that the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum has so far failed to agree on a legal basis for national elections.<\/p>\n<p>We must take a strong stance against those who favour postponing the elections for selfish political motives. Here, the Security Council must reaffirm that it will not tolerate any obstruction.<\/p>\n<p>Ladies and gentlemen,<\/p>\n<p>With the support of the United Nations and this Council, Libya has made great progress towards peace and unity.<\/p>\n<p>Now, we must stay the course to make that progress irreversible.<\/p>\n<p>This is what we agreed upon in Berlin three weeks ago. And I am counting on you to help us honour that commitment.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you.<\/p>\n<p><i>Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Germany &#8211; Federal Foreign Office.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/\">Source: Africa Newsroom &#8211; APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Download logo During the past year, Libya has come a long way towards peace and unity: An interim executive authority has been selected and approved by the Libyan House of Representatives. Military representatives from both sides have agreed to a ceasefire. And the oil shutdown has been lifted, providing an economic lifeline for the Libyan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-195325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/statement-by-foreign-minister-heiko-maas-on-the-occasion-of-the-un-security-council-meeting-on-libya.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}