U.N. says Mladenov unable to take up role as U.N. Libya envoy

Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov has told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres he will be unable to take up the role as U.N. Libya envoy next year due to "personal and family reasons," a U.N. spokesman said on Tuesday.

Mladenov has been the U.N. Middle East envoy for the past five years. The U.N. Security Council had last week approved Guterres's proposal to appoint Mladenov as the Libya mediator and Norwegian Tor Wennesland to succeed Mladenov as Middle East envoy.