Libya may ask U.N. council to extend no-fly zone: envoy

Libya’s transitional administration may formally ask the U.N. Security Council to extend the U.N. mandate for military action in the country, its deputy U.N. envoy said Wednesday.

Because the national armed forces has not been reactivated, deputy U.N. envoy Ibrahim Dabbashi told the Security Council that the National Transitional Council may have to ask for an extension of the mandate past October 31.

“We wish to ask you not to be hasty in adopting a resolution and we will inform you of the official decision of the NTC, which we hope will be done by the end of this month,” Dabbashi told a Security Council meeting on Libya.

The Security Council is working on a resolution ending no-fly zone and protection of civilians provisions, agreed in February and March, which allowed NATO’s airstrikes in Libya.

Going into Wednesday’s meetings, diplomats said they were still working on the basis that the mandate would end on October 31, when NATO had previously indicated it would end its operations.

Russia’s U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin said that an extension past October 31 would be “unrealistic.” Libya’s U.N. mission had previously written to the Security Council asking for the no-fly zone mandate to end on that date, diplomats said.