UN Security Council Approves Nickolay Mladenov as New Envoy to Libya

On Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council approved a proposal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to name Bulgarian Nickolay Mladenov as the new special envoy to Libya, according to diplomats.

They added that the Security Council also approved the appointment of Norwegian Tor Wennesland as the U.N. Middle East envo.

Mladenov will replace Ghassan Salame, who stepped down as the U.N. Libya envoy in March due to health conditions, meanwhile Wennesland is s set to succeed Mladenov, who has spent the past five years as the U.N. mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.

The appointments end months of bickering among council members sparked by a U.S. push to split the Libya role, with one person running the U.N. political mission and another focused on conflict mediation. The Security Council agreed to that proposal in September, but Russia and China abstained.

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 - the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) and Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) - agreed a ceasefire.

The council also reiterated a call for the withdrawal of all foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya.

Wennesland is currently Norway’s special envoy on the Middle East peace process. The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.