Libyan parties agree to form unity gov't: UN envoy

The UN Support Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) announced late Thursday that a national unity government will be formed in Libya with Faiz al-Saraj as its prime minister.

Saraj, a lawmaker from Libya's internationally recognized House of Representatives (HoR), would work with three deputy prime ministers on the Presidential Council, Bernardino Leon, head of UNSMIL, told a press conference in the Moroccan city of Skhirat.

Two senior members on the Presidential Council include a member from the General National Congress (GNC) that failed to propose names for the unity government, as was expected Wednesday.

According to UNSMIL, the two main parties in Libya's political dialogue, the GNC and HoR, are expected to agree on the names for the Presidential Council by the end of this week.

Libya, a major oil producer in North Africa, has been witnessing a frayed political process after former leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled during the 2011 political turmoil, as two rival parliaments vying for power and several groups have been fighting for control of national resource wealth.

On Monday, Leon resumed talks with the Libyan warring parties, two weeks after the negotiations were adjourned for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.

At the closing of the last round of talks, he insisted that the final deadline for signing an agreement not go beyond Oct. 20, when the mandate of the HoR expires.

A UN-brokered Libyan political agreement was initiated in July by the Tobruk-based HoR along with representatives of political parties, municipalities and civil society groups, but the GNC did not join the accord. Endi