German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the head of the National Accord Government, Fayez al-Sarraj, to quickly sign a ceasefire agreement, hours after the United Nations announced that its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had appointed US diplomat Stephanie Williams as acting Special Representative and Head of the UN mission in Libya.
In its statement, the UN mission said Williams has “more than 24 years of experience in government and international affairs, has served in UNSMIL as Deputy Special Representative since 2018.”
“Before that appointment, she served as Chargée d’Affaires, a.i. at the Embassy of the United States in Tripoli (Libya External Office). She has also held various other diplomatic positions, including Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States missions in Iraq (2016-2017), Jordan (2013-2015) and Bahrain (2010-2013), where she led the Embassy as Chargée d’Affaires for 10 months,” the UN statement explained.
It added that Williams also served as a senior adviser on Syria and at her country’s embassies in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Pakistan.
Williams holds a master’s degree in Arab studies from Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. She is also a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College, where she earned a master’s degree in national security studies in 2008. She is a career Middle East specialist and Arabic speaker, according to the statement.
She will succeed Ghassan Salame, who announced his resignation earlier this month for health reasons after he served as head of the UN mission in Libya for two and a half years.
Meanwhile, Sarraj received a phone call from Merkel on Thursday, the Libyan official’s bureau reported.
The phone call came days after Khalifa Haftar, military commander of the National Army, visited Merkel for talks in Berlin.
“They discussed the current political and military situation,” the statement read.
It continued: “The chancellor stressed, as she did on Tuesday in her conversation with General Khalifa Haftar, the importance of signing the ceasefire that was recently agreed in Geneva by representatives of the conflict parties.”
