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Hope for Libya after first round of talks

After months of painful lobbying, the UN’s special envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon, managed to get opposing sides to the negotiating table, with Libya’s main warring factions declaring a cease-fire to give the talks a chance.
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Bernardino Leon addresses a news conference at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, January 14, 2015. The United Nations will launch talks on Wednesday in Geneva between warring Libyan factions even though one side has delayed its decision on attending negotiations aimed at averting a broader civil war. Two rival governments and their forces are vying for control in Libya, three years after th

With the strong backing of the United Nations and the European Union, finally, UN special envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon’s mediation in the Libyan crisis has borne some fruit.

Leon succeeded in bringing the rival bickering Libyan factions together in Geneva for two-day talks Jan. 14-15 to agree on an agenda for further talks that will resume this week, according to a statement by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). The intense negotiations produced negotiable points for further discussions, which were a positive sign of progress given the violence Libya has suffered since last summer.

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