The Head of the High Council of State (HCS) Abdelrahman Al-Sweihli called on the United Nations (UN) to put an end to the hindering parties that are getting in the way of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) and above all, Khalifa Haftar, whom he described as "the first hindrance to national unity and peace."

In a meeting with the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, and the Head of the UNSMIL, Ghassan Salame, in Tripoli, Al-Sweihli talked about the latest political developments and the UN action plan.

"It is necessary to end the regional and foreign interventions in Libya as they affected the efforts to achieve real accord in the country since some countries are still supporting the parties hindering the LPA." Al-Sweihli indicated, according to his media office.

He urged the UN to take a very strict stance against those hindering parties, naming Haftar as the first of them all who "undermined efforts to achieve peace in the last two years leading to a delay in implementing the LPA and to a severe economic and security crisis in Libya."

Meanwhile, Feltman called on all Libyan parties to look for the greater good of the country, saying the UN will continue to support the legitimate constitutional framework in Libya, with special care to see the implementation of the UN action plan on the ground, besides the unifications of state institutions.

"Libyans have a chance in 2018 to achieve a national reconciliation and to lay the constitutional and legitimate as well as security bases for free and democratic elections that would end the transitional phase once and for all." Feltman remarked, according to Al-Sweihli's media office.