TRIPOLI
UN envoy to Libya Bernardino Leon on Tuesday met with the speaker of Tripoli's Islamist-led parliament, hours after he was prevented by protesters from meeting with the speaker of Libya's internationally-recognized parliament in Tobruk.
Leon arrived late Monday in Tripoli where he met with Assembly Speaker Nouri Abusahmain, Mohamed Ammar, spokesman for Libya's General National Congress, told The Anadolu Agency.
"The meeting featured consultations on the ongoing UN-sponsored dialogue session in Morocco," Ammar said.
On Monday, a group of local residents and activists prevented Leon from leaving the Tobruk airport, forcing him to fly on to Tripoli.
Protesters, waving signs supporting the Tobruk-backed Libyan army in its "war on terrorism," prevented a government delegation from receiving Leon at the airport, Youssef Boudakra, a Tobruk security official, told The Anadolu Agency.
The protesters accused Leon of favoring the Islamist-led Tripoli government over its Tobruk-based rival in ongoing UN-sponsored peace talks in Morocco, according to the official.
A fresh round of UN-sponsored talks kicked off on Friday after being postponed twice. The most recent delay came in reaction to attacks by Tobruk-backed troops on an airport in Tripoli.
At the center of discussions was the need to agree on a unity government in Libya and to draft a framework for security arrangements.
Troops backed by Libya's Tobruk-based parliament and government on Friday launched airstrikes against several facilities in Tripoli.
The airstrikes prompted retaliatory attacks by the Tripoli-backed Islamist Dawn of Libya militia on Tobruk-backed troops in the western city of Zintan.
Libya has remained in a state of turmoil since a bloody uprising ended the decades-long rule of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in late 2011.
Since then, the country's stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, each with its own institutions and military capacities.
Vying for legislative authority are the Tobruk-based parliament and an Islamist-led parliament that convenes in Tripoli.
The two assemblies support two rival governments respectively headquartered in the two cities.
