MOSCOW, September 16. /TASS/. Russia urges to appoint a new UN secretary-general's special representative for Libya as soon as possible, the post has been vacant for too long, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty.

"We emphasized the need to appoint a new special representative of the UN secretary-general for Libya as soon as possible. This position has been vacant for too long," the top Russian diplomat pointed out.

"We, like our Egyptian friends, are committed to the concept of a comprehensive settlement of the crisis on the basis of the principles of sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity," Lavrov added, commenting on the situation in and around Libya.

On April 16, Abdoulaye Bathily, who was the UN secretary general's special representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), resigned.

At the moment there are two unrecognized governments in Libya. The first - backed by the UN and headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah - operates in Tripoli. The second - empowered by the House of Representatives - is based in Benghazi and led by Osama Hammad. After the overthrow and assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya ceased to function as a unified state. For the past several years, there has been a standoff between the authorities in Tripoli in the west of the country and those in the east, supported by the Libyan National Army under the command of Marshal Khalifa Haftar. In 2021, the UN-sponsored Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Geneva elected a transitional executive until general elections, which have not yet been held.