UNITED NATIONS: The United States has blocked the appointment of former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad to be the new UN envoy to Libya, in what was seen as a show of the Trump administration’s support to Israel at the world body. Guterres had given the Security Council until late Friday to consider Fayyad as a replacement for Martin Kobler of Germany, who has served as the Libyan envoy since November 2015. Fayyad’s appointment had come amid diplomatic negotiations over changes to a UN-brokered political deal that led to the formation of Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj’s unity government. Kobler told the Security Council on Wednesday that talks on “possible amendments” to the political agreement were making progress. It was the first major appointment by Guterres of a special envoy to a conflict area since he became UN chief on 1 January.

Source: Libya Today February 12, 2017 05:44 UTC