US ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Aqila Saleh, discussed the current political situation and prospects for restoring momentum toward elections in a call on April 8.
“We are working with key actors on all sides to maintain stability, beginning with efforts to ensure that Libya’s vast oil wealth is not used for partisan political purposes, but rather goes to meet the most critical needs of the people. We are supporting efforts by leaders including HoR Speaker Saleh to agree on a Libyan-led mechanism for facilitating and monitoring such expenditures.” Norland said, according to a statement by the US embassy on Facebook.
Norland also added that as the impasse in the executive unfolds, the embassy wishes to make clear that for the US, the most relevant issue at this time is the need for sufficient political consensus, acceptability, and credibility among a critical mass of the Libyan people across the entire country in order to lead the nation to elections.
“With the end of the LPDF preparatory phase for a comprehensive solution approaching in June, it is more important than ever to organize elections which can move Libya beyond an endless cycle of transitional governments.” Norland added.
He said he had urged the HoR Speaker to continue lending all necessary support to establish a constitutional and legal basis for organizing elections as soon as possible in conjunction with the UN-facilitated process.
Source: US Embassy on Facebook
