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All military actions have to stop in Libya, says EU foreign affairs chief

Xinhua, March 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

The European Union's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said here on Monday that all military activities have to stop if people want a solution for Libya.

She made the remarks to reporters on the sidelines of a two-day meeting of 34 Libyan mayors and local leaders. The meeting was hosted by the EU and held under the auspices of Bernadino Leon, the UN's special representative for Libya.

"This not only concerns Libya's future, it also concerns European security, the stability of the region of the Mediterranean and Africa, so it is an international challenge," she said.

Noting that the mayors or representatives were from different areas of Libya, and that many of the cities they worked in had been attacked, Mogherini said: "the security concern of the people on the ground was obviously one of our first concerns."

But "solving the security problem in the cities is also a way of allowing the political process to go on to have a positive outcome," she added.

"We are arriving from Morocco, and the political track there is progressing well. But this one here is especially important, this is one that can show the Libyan people there are benefits of peace even before there is a final agreement; this is a message we are trying to agree on here," Leon told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.

The UN-led political dialogue process consists of five tracks: political, municipal, security, political parties, and tribal. The meeting in Brussels is the second one of the municipalities and runs in parallel with discussions of the main political track in the Moroccan city of Rabat.

Upon the announcement of the meeting last Saturday, Mogherini said that municipal leaders, being on the front line in Libya, have a crucial role to play in seeking the end of the conflict, expressing hope that the meeting in Brussels would engender a strong support for the political dialogue process and encouragement for the political leadership in reaching an agreement. Endit