Morocco, Algeria compete over Libya
Morocco may be exploiting Algerian weaknesses to raise the stature of its foreign diplomacy by hosting the UN-sponsored dialogue between the conflicting Libyan parties.
![Nic6427393 Mohammed Maazab, a Libyan member of the General National Congress (GNC) and head of the talks with the United Nations, adresses journalists on March 12, 2015 in Skhirat, near the Moroccan capital Rabat, where a new round of UN-mediated crisis talks between representatives from Libya's rival parliaments is supposed to start. Libya's internationally recognised parliament which is based in the eastern city of Tobruk confirmed they requested to postpone the start of the talks in Morocco aimed at forming a unity](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2015/04/465982344.jpg/465982344.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=o3rw1IgI)
On April 19, in the Moroccan coastal city of Skhirat, reports circulated that the Libyan crisis will end soon and positively. Bernardino Leon, the UN secretary-general's special representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, announced a major breakthrough in the new round of talks begun April 15 between the delegations of the Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC) and the Tobruk-based parliament to discuss the formation of a national unity government.
Leon told reporters at the end of the dialogue round, “I can tell you that we have now a draft which looks like something very close to a final agreement. Eighty percent of the text is, let me put it this way, is something that the parties can agree [to].” Well-informed sources on the Skhirat dialogue told Al-Monitor that the two delegations will return in about two weeks to the Moroccan city to resume a new round of talks that might possibly be the last.