Italy’s Senate speaker Elizabetta Casellati on Wednesday backed “crucial” efforts by the United Nations to resolve Libya’s escalating conflict, amid fears of a slide into all-out civil war.
“Tensions and instability are growing by the day in the Mediterranean region and the situation in Libya is clear evidence of this,” Casellati told the Senate ahead of an address by United Nations chief Antonio Guterres.
The UN is playing a “crucial” role in Libya, where its special envoy Ghassan Salame is carrying out “serious and precious” groundwork for a political process leading to a peace settlement,” Castellati said.
A deadly battle for Tripoli began in early April between militias allied with the internationally recognised unity government and the forces of eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar, who launched a military assault on the capital.
Oil-rich Libya has had rival administrations in the east and west of the country since 2014 and has been in turmoil since the Nato-backed ouster of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.