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STORY: UN / LIBYA
TRT: 04:54
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTION: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 19 DECEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Headquarters
19 DECEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya:
“Four months have elapsed since I first presented the Roadmap to this Council on 21 August and UNSMIL has been engaging Libyan stakeholders with regard to its implementation, which I admit has been quite challenging.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya:
“In my last briefing, I had informed that the two committees on sovereign positions of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the High Council of State (HCS) had agreed on 4 October to reconstitute the HNEC within two weeks. Despite multiple efforts and engagements with these institutions, this did not happen.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya:
“On the 28 November after further engagement, the two institutional committees of the respective bodies in the presence of UNSMIL signed an agreement establishing a mechanism for the selection of the Board members of the HNEC. According to the agreed timelines, names of candidates should have been transferred by the HCS to the HOR and the selection finalized by 11 December. However, this did not happen.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya:
“It is my assessment that the delays are a manifestation of the lack of trust between the two institutions, their own internal divisions, and the inability to overcome their differences and agree on the way forward to resolve the current impasse. I must acknowledge however the serious efforts by some members to advance these two processes.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya:
“On 14 and 15 December, UNSMIL launched the inaugural meeting of the Structured Dialogue which is one of the three core components of the Roadmap. This is the first process of this magnitude to be held on Libyan soil. UNSMIL invited nominations from key sovereign institutions, civil society, political parties, academia, cultural and linguistic components and also invited representation from other state institutions.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Rabiussef, Deputy Permanent Representative of Somalia to the United Nations, Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning Libya:
“In informal consultations dated the 26th of August the committee heard a presentation by the panel of experts on its interim report, which was submitted to the Security Council on the 12th of September. The report focused on acts that threatened the peace, stability and security of Libya, implementation of the arms embargo and prevention of illicit exports of petroleum. The committee is currently considering follow-up action on one of the recommendations contained in the interim report.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Rabiussef, Deputy Permanent Representative of Somalia to the United Nations, Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning Libya:
“During the informal consultations, the committee member also raised the question of a possible committee visit to Libya, a matter on which I expressed my openness to exploring with the committee members in the coming months.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Rabiussef, Deputy Permanent Representative of Somalia to the United Nations, Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1970 (2011) concerning Libya:
“Additionally, in relation to the reinvestments of the frozen cash reserves of the Libyan Investment Authority, the committee, with the support of the Panel of Experts, is aiming to provide guidance to all Member States on the implementation of paragraph 14 of resolution 2769 of the year 2025.”
18. Wide shot, Security Council
19. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Taher M. El-Sonni, Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations:
“We have taken note of the initiative of the structured dialog by UNSMIL. We hope that Libyans would agree on their recommendations on areas of disagreement in the different walks of life. And these will be taken into consideration by the authorities and used as guidance to address different imbalances. Here we reiterate that any next or upcoming dialog or track, including the structured dialog, should respect the points of reference that govern those elements, including the agreement that is included in the Constitutional Declaration of 2018 and the roadmap, and to include an accurate study of the reasons that a number of provisions have not been implemented, and to propose solutions to end all transitional phases, and not to repeat the mistakes of the past and the accumulation of one roadmap after another.”
20. Wide shot, Security Council
Four months after unveiling a UN-backed political roadmap for Libya, progress remains stalled by institutional deadlock and mistrust, UN Libya envoy Hanna Serwaa Tetteh told the Security Council.
Briefing the Council in New York today (19 Dec), Tetteh said efforts to advance electoral preparations had failed to meet agreed timelines, despite repeated engagement with Libya’s rival political bodies. She recalled that committees from the House of Representatives and the High Council of State had agreed in October to reconstitute the High National Elections Commission within two weeks, but “despite multiple efforts and engagements with these institutions, this did not happen.”
Tetteh said a subsequent agreement signed on 28 November, under UN auspices, established a mechanism to select new HNEC board members, with a deadline of 11 December to finalize the process. That deadline also passed without action.
“It is my assessment that the delays are a manifestation of the lack of trust between the two institutions, their own internal divisions, and the inability to overcome their differences and agree on the way forward to resolve the current impasse,” Tetteh said, adding that she recognized “the serious efforts by some members to advance these two processes.”
Despite the setbacks, Tetteh highlighted the launch of a new UN-facilitated dialogue process held inside Libya earlier this month, describing it as a key component of the roadmap.
“On 14 and 15 December, UNSMIL launched the inaugural meeting of the Structured Dialogue which is one of the three core components of the Roadmap,” she said. “This is the first process of this magnitude to be held on Libyan soil.”
She said participants included representatives from sovereign institutions, civil society, political parties, academia and cultural and linguistic groups, alongside other state institutions.
The Security Council also heard an update from Mohammed Rabiussef, Somalia’s deputy UN ambassador and chair of the Council’s Libya sanctions committee, who outlined the committee’s recent work, including a review of an interim report by the Panel of Experts.
He said the report focused on threats to Libya’s peace and security, the implementation of the arms embargo and efforts to prevent illicit petroleum exports, adding that the committee was considering follow-up action on one of the panel’s recommendations.
Rabiussef also said committee members had raised the possibility of a visit to Libya, a proposal he said he was open to exploring in the coming months. He added that the committee was working to provide guidance to UN member states on the reinvestment of frozen assets belonging to the Libyan Investment Authority, in line with a 2025 Security Council resolution.
Libya’s UN ambassador, Taher M. El-Sonni, said his government had taken note of the UN-led structured dialogue initiative and expressed hope that Libyans would reach consensus on outstanding areas of disagreement.
He said future dialogues should address the reasons why previous provisions were not implemented and propose solutions to end Libya’s prolonged transition, “and not to repeat the mistakes of the past and the accumulation of one roadmap after another.”
