After his appointment was blocked by the US Ambassador to the UN in early April, Ramtane Lamamra, the former head of the African Union's Commission for Peace and Security and former Algerian Finance Minister, withdrew on 16 April from the running to become the UN Special Envoy to Libya.Reports suggest that the US Ambassador vetoed Lamamra's appointment after the UAE, Saudi, and Egypt expressed that they feared that Algeria was too supportive of the GNA to be able to be coherent mediators with LNA leader Khalifa Haftar. That the US exercised its influence against its European allies and on behalf of its Gulfi allies is in fitting with the pattern that the US has adopted towards Libya in the last year or so.Given this new impasse over the envoy position, the ongoing conflict in Libya, the deep divisions and high levels of mistrust between UNSC members, and the global crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems unlikely that a new envoy will be appointed to the position in the short term. As such, despite current Deputy Envoy to Libya, Stephanie Williams taking up the acting role, she lacks the full powers of being the Envoy, and hence the UN mediated peace process is likely to go into stasis. While individual foreign actors may use this as an opportunity to reassert influence and carve out fresh unilateral mediation or dialogue processes, the chances of a negotiated ceasefire or political solution being agreed and implemented in the short term are low.
Details on US opposition to appointment of new Special Envoy to Libya