The emergence of two rival Libyan governments and deepening fractures can be "worked through," the United Nations special envoy Stephanie Williams said.
The Libyan people want to end a decade of violence and elect a government, showing "zero appetite" for further conflict despite a renewed political standoff, the U.N.'s top in-country official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Most Libyans really want to put an end to 11 years of chaos, division and war – and do so in a peaceful way by going to the ballot box," Williams said in the interview published on Sunday.
Libya was meant to hold elections last December, as part of a U.N.-guided peace process aiming to draw a line under a complex conflict that dates back to the 2011 revolt that toppled and killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
But as political factions wrangled over their legal basis and the eligibility of some controversial candidates, the polls were indefinitely postponed.
Williams said that was "a huge disappointment" to Libyans, especially after some 2.8 million citizens registered to vote amid a rare period of optimism following a landmark October 2020 cease-fire.
A new fissure deepened early this month when Libya's eastern-based parliament approved a new Cabinet in a direct challenge to a Tripoli-based unity government that was painstakingly stitched together through U.N.-led talks a year ago.
That move was quickly followed by ominous military maneuvers on the capital's outskirts.
"There is a crisis over the executive, there is a political conflict over who sits in Tripoli," Williams acknowledged.
"But that can be worked through," she added.
The latest in a long line of standoffs pits Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah's interim government in Tripoli against Fathi Bashagha, a former interior minister chosen by parliament as his successor.
Bashagha is supported by eastern-based putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who waged a devastating but ultimately unsuccessful 2019-2020 offensive against a previous "unity government" in Tripoli.
Bashagha's backers argue that Dbeibah was only meant to lead the country to the Dec. 24 vote – and that his mandate has therefore expired.
But the incumbent insists he will only cede power to an elected administration.
Williams, an Arabic-speaking American diplomat who reports to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, has warned publicly against escalation and offered to mediate.
Williams said she had met thousands of people from across the country in recent months.
Based on those talks, "there is zero appetite to return to large-scale conflict in Libya," she said.
"There's always going to be a degree of shallow legitimacy attached to any executive that is not directly elected by the people," she explained.
The political maneuvering that has obstructed elections has also laid bare the "massive disconnect between the political class and the body politic," she added.
In her efforts to mediate a way out of the mess, Williams has been urging the upper house – based in Tripoli – and the eastern-based lower house to negotiate a constitutional basis for elections.
It's a key sticking point in a country that has had no constitution since Gadhafi tore the last one up in 1969.
But the lower house has yet to agree on delegates to the talks, Williams said.
"We're at a crucial inflection point for them to come to the table with good intentions and in good faith to sort this out," she urged.
But she voiced confidence that a deal could be reached, pointing to the example of talks held in 2020 following the bitter military conflict over Tripoli.
"They can do this," she said. "But they have to get to the table.
"Step number two is to sit and actually negotiate seriously and in good faith, knowing that you've got three million people watching you," she added, referring to Libyans who had collected voting cards.
"That should be enough pressure."
