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Can Libya’s new government balance international, domestic duties?

Now that the UN and the Tobruk-based government of Libya have endorsed a new agreement to form a united government, the latter must juggle conflicting priorities both inside and outside the war-torn country.
United Nations Special Representative and Head of the U.N. Support Mission in Libya Martin Kobler (C, top) looks on as representatives of Libyan municipalities sign documents to support Libya's new national government during a meeting in Tunis, Tunisia, December 21, 2015. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi - RTX1ZO40

According to UN envoy to Libya Martin Kobler, Libya will have one government by the end of January 2016, and it will be in Tripoli. Despite the difficulties facing it, the new government of national accord has already won major international approval. On Dec. 23, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2259, recognizing it as the sole legitimate government of the war-torn country.

Bernardino Leon, the former UN envoy to Libya, spent nearly 14 months in difficult negotiations starting September 2014, when he first took up the job. Since August 2014, when the capital was overrun by a coalition of Islamist militias forcing the elected government to flee to Tobruk, Libya has had two quarreling parliaments and two opposing governments. They have accepted a political agreement signed in Skhirat, Morocco, on Dec. 17, 2015.

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