Menfi slams “secret understandings,” criticizes UNSMIL

Presidential Council’s Head Mohammed Menfi criticized the lack of transparency in Libya’s political settlement tracks, strongly rejecting the sharing of documents and understandings concerning the country’s future with international actors before they are transparently presented to the Libyan people, their institutions, and national forces.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Menfi called on the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to adhere to its fundamental role as a “facilitator” of a Libyan-owned process, warning the mission against taking steps that could raise questions and doubts about its neutrality and transparency.

Menfi downplayed the significance of any agreements reached behind closed doors, stressing that understandings that lack legitimacy, consensus, and the ability to be implemented will not succeed in concealing the realities of Libya’s deep-rooted crisis. 

He identified widespread corruption and smuggling, manipulation of oil revenues, deteriorating public services, and the erosion of the Libyan dinar’s value as key manifestations of the crisis.

Menfi stressed that those who were part of the causes of the crisis cannot serve as a pathway to its solution. He warned that continuing to reinforce a policy of “fait accompli” at the expense of the rule of law and state institutions would inevitably take the country back to square one.