25.09.2018
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva participated in New York in a meeting of the first diplomats from the EU, whereby a hearing was held with the UN special envoys for Libya and Syria.
Zaharieva is part of the Bulgarian delegation to the UN General Assembly led by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.
In a videoconference from Tripoli, Ghassab Salame, the UN special representative for Libya, informed the ministers about the precarious situation in the country after the armed attacks in the Libyan capital, in violation of the ceasefire agreement signed by 18 groups on 4 September.
Measures are needed to cut the funding of these formations, which are better equipped than government forces. Three are the main sources of such funding: illegal export of subsidized fuel, speculation with the difference between the official and the market exchange rate of the Libyan currency, and control over the main enterprises and infrastructure sites. Currently, there are about 700,000 emigrants in Libya, in addition to the thirty thousand in refugee camps. Given a normal functioning of the Libyan statehood and economy, this number corresponds to the labor force needs of the country.
According to Staffan de Mistura, UN Special Envoy for Syria, there are about 10,000 terrorists in the Idlib province, but also about three million innocent citizens who rely on international protection. The coming month of October will be a key trial period for both Idlib's future and the creation of the so called constitutional committee that is to adopt the rules for political transition.
