UN committed to holding Libya national conference amid heightened tensions

The U.N special envoy to Libya said on Tuesday that he would work to convene a national conference that had been due to begin on Sunday and would do it when conditions of its success were met. The United Nations was planning to hold a conference in the southwestern town of Ghadames from April 14 to 16 to discuss elections as a way out of the country's eight-year-long conflict.

While the envoy's statement did not explicitly say the conference was postponed, it looks unlikely to begin, given the battle for the capital. "I will work with whatever is within my power to hold Libya's national conference and as soon as possible," Ghassan Salame said in the statement.