UN envoy urges foreign powers to “get out of Libya”

“I am really angry to see that everybody wants to talk about Libya and very few people want to talk about the Libyans, what happens to the Libyans,” Ghassan Salame said after a two-hour meeting with the UN Security Council.

“Enough is enough, the Libyans have suffered enough,” he added.

Asked about Turkey’s decision to deploy troops in Libya to support the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, Salame responded that the “country is suffering too much from foreign interferences in different ways.”

“What I asked these countries is very clear: keep out of Libya. There is enough weapons in Libya, they don’t need extra weapons. There are enough mercenaries in Libya, so stop sending mercenaries, as it is the case right now,” he said, estimating the number of foreign fighters in the country to be in the “hundreds, probably thousands.”

The Security Council held a closed-door meeting on Libya on Monday and after the session with Salame, expressed concern at the spike in unrest.

“The council reiterates the need to comply with the [UN] arms embargo and cease foreign interference,” it said in a statement.