The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Monday expressed hope to reach a permanent cease-fire in the country through a solution reached by delegations of the fourth round of the Libyan (5+5) Joint Military Commission (JMC) talks in Geneva. The talks kicked off on Monday morning in Geneva with presence of the Acting Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Libya, Stephanie Williams, UNSMIL said in a statement. The work of the 5+5 JMC, the security track, is one of the three intra-Libyan tracks that UNSMIL is working on, along with the economic and political tracks, which emerged from the 2020 Berlin Conference on Libya. These tracks were endorsed by Security Council Resolution 2510 (2020), which called on both parties to reach an agreement for a permanent cease-fire, the statement said. The deliberations of this round will continue until the 24th of this month. UNSMIL hopes that the two delegations will reach a solution to all outstanding issues in order to achieve a complete and permanent cease-fire across Libya, the statement added. Libya has been suffering from escalating violence and unrest ever since the fall of the late leader Muammar Gaddafis regime in 2011. The North African nation has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid political division between eastern and western governments.
