UN Chief Proposes New Envoy to Libya: Diplomats

On Monday, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed Nickolay Mladenov to be the coming envoy to Libya, who could be given the green light by the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday after months of delay, according to a number of diplomats' statements.

In a statement, they added that Mladenov, if approved by the 15 Security Council members, will become the UN special envoy in Libya- replacing Ghassan Salame who stepped down in March due to health conditions.

Mladenov's appointment as the UN envoy will put an end to months of bickering sparked by a U.S. push to split the Libya role to have one person running the U.N. political mission and another focused on conflict mediation.

The Security Council agreed to that proposal in September. Guterres then proposed Bulgarian diplomat Mladenov for the Libya role last month and on Friday named Wennesland, currently Norway’s special envoy on the Middle East peace process, to replace Mladenov, according to letters seen by Reuters.

Mladenov has been the U.N. Middle East envoy since 2015.

Libya descended into chaos after the NATO-backed overthrow of leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. In October, the two major sides in the country’s war - Government of National Accord (GNA) and Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) - agreed a ceasefire.