TRIPOLI, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the eastern-based Libyan army, Thursday called on the UN to end the political stalemate in Libya.
Haftar made his remarks during his meeting with Ghassan Salame, the head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, in the eastern city of Benghazi, according to the army's media department.
"Gen. Haftar asked the international envoy to quickly end the political deadlock, because the Libyan crisis has become unacceptably worrying and put the Libyans in a state of suffering and disappointment," an army official told Xinhua.
"The international envoy informed the army commander that there were intensive contacts with the House of Representatives and the Higher Council of State to meet as soon as possible to discuss the final amendments to the Skhirat agreement," the official said on condition of anonymity.
In 2015, the Libyan political rivals signed a UN-sponsored peace agreement in the Moroccan city of Skhirat.
For his part, Salama said he is optimistic about the UN plan to promote the political solution to the Libyan crisis.
"All indicators are conducive to the continuation of the UN plan to support the process of organizing elections before the end of this year," the official quoted Salama as saying.
The UN plan, proposed by Salame in September, includes amendment to the UN-sponsored peace agreement and holding presidential and parliamentary elections before the end of 2018.
Following the uprising of 2011 which toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime, Libya has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid political division, insecurity and chaos.
