The United Nations Security Council has approved the appointment of Slovakian diplomat Jan Kubis (68 years old) as the UN Libya envoy, over 10 months after the last envoy, Ghassan Salame, stepped down, citing health reasons, leaving the American diplomat Stephanie Williams, Salame's deputy, in his place as an acting envoy.

The appointment of Kubis also came one month after the rejection of the Bulgarian diplomat, Nickolay Mladenov, to take up the job in Libya, citing personal and family reasons.

Kubis, Slovakia’s former Foreign Minister, is currently the UN special coordinator for Lebanon. He has also served as the UN special envoy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Two diplomats, who asked not to be named, told Al Jazeera Net that some diplomats expressed reservations about Kubis being selected for the Libya envoy job, saying they just participated with the majority vote but, to them, Kubis "doesn't have good reputation in effective work."

Security Council approved last September the appointment of a special envoy for political dialogue and a coordinator to help get all the matters on the ground in Libya done. The UN Support Mission in Libya is now holding political, economic and military dialogue, but the recurrent foreign intervention is still hindering q breakthrough in the settlement process.