May 3, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government has disclosed that the United Nations (UN) has asked for its help to convince the warring Libyan parties to sign an agreement it drafted to resolve the crisis in the north African nation.

Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti speaking to reporters in Khartoum on 28 December 2014 (ST)

Last week, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) circulated a draft proposal for a political agreement in Libya.

In a letter addressed to the participants in the Libyan dialogue, special representative of the UN secretary-general for Libya Bernardino Leon explained that the proposal builds on discussions that took place over the past three months.

Spokesperson for Sudan’s foreign ministry, Ali al-Sadiq, said the UN asked his country to convince the conflicting Libyan parties to sign the draft deal, pointing that Leon handed over the agreement to Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Karti, on Sunday.

He added that the UN held several meetings with the warring Libyan parties in al-Geria, Switzerland and Morocco, noting that Leon asked Karti to contact those parties and urge them to sign the proposal particularly since Sudan played an important role in resolving the Libyan crisis.

Libya’s neighbouring countries, in their meeting held in Khartoum last December, called for immediate stop of all types of armed struggle, urging the conflicting parties to achieve peace, reconciliation and stability and draft a new constitution through dialogue.

Sudan’s top diplomat met with the Libyan adversaries in Tripoli and Tubruq last November to identify the different viewpoints in prelude for a Sudanese role to bridge the gap between them.

Libya has been plagued by political infighting, with government and parliament unable to control militias that have continued to defy state authority since ousting Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Libya’s internationally recognised government has persistently accused Sudan of providing weapons to Islamist militias in collaboration with Qatar.

Last September, the Libyan government said Sudan was arming "terror" groups after an arms-laden Sudanese plane touched down in southern Libya, allegedly bound for a military airbase in Tripoli held by mostly Islamist militias who seized the capital in August.

However, Libya’s premier, Abdullah al-Thani, paid a three-day visit to Khartoum in October, and accepted a peace plan proposed by president Omer Hassan al-Bashir to bring different Libyan groups together for talks on ending the conflict.

(ST)