Diplomats from the United States, Europe, and the Mideast met on December 13 with leaders of Libya's rival political factions to impress upon them the need to adopt a UN-brokered national unity plan.
The plan to create a national unity government within 40 days was endorsed at a Rome conference aimed at rescuing the country from chaos and preventing Islamic State extremists from gaining more ground.
In a joint statement, the international participants called on all parties to accept “an immediate, comprehensive cease-fire in all parts of Libya” and to sign on to the deal, as they have pledged, on December 16 in Morocco.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the international community is convinced that the representatives of Libyan factions attending the Rome gathering “speak for most Libyans.”
Kerry said “those leaders have endorsed what is the only legitimate basis for moving ahead.”