UN envoy to intensify negotiations to reach final agreement on Libyan elections in the coming months

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Libya says he plans to intensify negotiations with the country’s feuding parties to reach “a final settlement” in the coming months on the most contentious issues blocking long postponed elections in the troubled north African nation. Abdoulaye Bathily warned the U.N. Security Council on Monday that prolonging the current status quo “is fraught with disaster for Libya and its neighbors.” And he said it’s imperative that members increase pressure on the parties and act “to remove spoilers.” Bathily called draft election laws agreed to by a committee drawn from Libya’s two rival legislative bodies on June 6 “an important step forward, though not sufficient to resolve the most contested issues and enable successful elections.”