TRIPOLI, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- The head of the Libyan Higher Council of State on Sunday called on all parties to reach consensus during the upcoming Palermo conference in order to end the country's political crisis.
The southern Italian city of Palermo is scheduled to host an international conference on the Libyan crisis on Monday and Tuesday, which will gather major Libyan parties as well as regional and international heads of state.
"We call upon all parties to uphold the interests of the nation over any other interests, to be rational, and to seize this opportunity to reach a serious national consensus that would end the country's crisis and create political, security and economic conditions for transparent elections on a constitutional basis," Khalid al-Meshri said in a statement.
"The Higher Council of State will make further efforts to move forward toward resolving the dispute and achieving points of consensus among the participating parties," the statement noted.
Despite a UN-sponsored peace agreement signed by the Libyan political parties in 2015, Libya remains politically divided between eastern and western governments, both competing for legitimacy.
