The UN Security Council on Tuesday approved the candidacy of Bulgarian diplomat Nikolay Mladenov as the new UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy on Libya and Norwegian Thor Wennesland as the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, a diplomatic source at the organization told TASS.
"The Security Council approved the appointment of both candidates submitted earlier by the UN Secretary-General," the agency's interlocutor said.
There was considerable disagreement at the Security Council over the appointment of a successor to the previous Special Representative for Libya, Ghassan Salame, following his resignation in March. In late November, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres nominated Mladenov, who had served as Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, for the post. All 15 council countries were satisfied with Mladenov's candidacy, but some countries wanted a replacement for him on the Palestinian-Israeli track before his appointment.
On Tuesday, the Council held closed consultations to assess the UN Support Mission to Libya. In a joint statement following the meeting, the SC "expressed appreciation for the work of Acting UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General Stephanie Williams," who led the negotiation process between the parties to the conflict for more than eight months in the absence of the Special Envoy.
SC members also noted that they "look forward to the Secretary-General's report with proposals for the effective implementation of the monitoring of the ceasefire in Libya under the auspices of the UN".
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Based on materials from TASS