European countries and those in North Africa and the Middle East need to work together to bolster progress made in resolving the Libyan conflict and to resist "all attempts to sabotage" progress to date, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio said on Friday.
"The countries must work to stop all attempts to sabotage progress made in Libya, Di Maio told the Mediterranean Dialogues virtual forum.
"Our (Italy's) role as an EU and a Mediterranean country is to protect the political process from foreign interference and to support the nomination of the new UN special envoy to Libya," he said.
In ongoing UN-mediated talks, Libya's warring sides have agreed a ceasefire and have set a date for elections in Libya (on 24 December 2021), Di Maio noted.
"We must protect this precious path which is the fruit of years and years of mediation in which Italy, France, Germany and Spain have been deeply involved in," Di Maio underlined.
African countries have reportedly blocked the appointment of current Middle East mediator Nikolai Mladenov (a Bulgarian) as the new UN envoy to Libya because they felt an African should mediate the Libyan conflict.
The special envoy to Libya post has been vacant since March when Lebanese diplomat Ghassan Salame resigned from his post at the beginning of last March.
