UN highlights serious, constructive spirit amid resumption of Libyan JMC talks

GENEVA - The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) announced Tuesday the resumption of the intra-Libyan Joint Military Commission (JMC) talks in Geneva, saying that the participants came with the sense of responsibility and the serious and constructive spirit.

"We hope that this spirit is carried into the fully inclusive Libyan Political Forum scheduled to start on 26 February and urge all parties to seize the opportunity to respond positively," the UNSMIL said in an announcement.

Ghassan Salame, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of the UNSMIL, told a press briefing here that he is happy to be back in Geneva to moderate the second round of the military talks.

"The two delegations arrived yesterday, and we started our meetings today at 10 am, and we hope to be able, in this second round, to come to some kind of consensus about what a lasting ceasefire could look like in Libya," he said.

Saying that situation on the ground remains a situation where the truce is very fragile, he said that nobody has so far reneged on the principles of accepting the truce and the political process is trying to find a way to go forward.

He added that three tracks needed to be pushed together in a contemporary way: the economic track, the military track and the political one.

The first round of the intra-Libyan Joint Military Commission talks started on Feb 3 and concluded on Feb 8 in Geneva.