The 15-member UN Security Council, operating by consensus, must approve a new appointment. The Security Council approved his appointment as Libya mediator in January, succeeding Ghassan Salame, who quit in March 2020 due to stress. Al Jazeera’s Diplomatic Editor James Bays, reporting from the UN building in New York, said UN officials and Security Council diplomats were shocked he was leaving at this moment. Nearly 100 candidates have registered to run in Libya’s presidential elections, including Haftar, transitional Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for December 24 and parliamentary elections have been pushed to January or February.

Source: Libya Today November 23, 2021 20:49 UTC