The UN Security Council is set to vote Wednesday on a resolution that would endorse a 55-point road map for ending the war in Libya and condemn the recent increase in violence.
The British-drafted resolution demands the warring parties "commit to a lasting cease-fire" and insists on full compliance with a UN arms embargo that has been repeatedly broken, as called for in the plan approved by leaders of 12 world powers and other key countries meeting Jan. 19 in Berlin.
It also recalls the commitment of all participants at the Berlin meeting to refrain from interfering in Libya's conflict and its internal affairs and expresses concern "over the growing involvement of mercenaries in Libya."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that the agreement has been repeatedly violated by continuing arms deliveries to the warring parties and escalating fighting. He called the current offensives by rival forces "a scandal," saying the commitments "apparently were made without a true intention of respecting them."
Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi who was later killed. A weak UN-recognized administration that holds the capital of Tripoli and parts of the country's west is backed by Turkey, which recently sent thousands of soldiers to Libya, and to a lesser degree Qatar and Italy.
On the other side is a rival government in the east that supports self-styled Gen. Khalifa Haftar, whose forces launched an offensive to capture the capital last April and are backed by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as well as France and Russia.
--AFP, Beirut