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China said it also offered other formulations that weren’t accepted, and “the penholder” — Britain — “simply gave up” negotiating, which it called “very unfortunate,” saying there was only a slight difference that was “not impossible to overcome.”

And, if nothing else, the exchange marks a reversal of the awkwardness that ensued in 2009 when British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave President Barack Obama a penholder made from the timbers of the same ship whose wood was used to build the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

Karen Pierce, the UK ambassador to the UN where the UK is the penholder on Libya, said: “There is no military solution to this conflict. There needs to be an inclusive political settlement and all sides need to cooperate with the United Nations in bringing about that inclusive political settlement.”

Britain, the “penholder” on Libya at the UN, was on Tuesday testing the possibility of pushing for a fresh UN security council resolution calling for economic sanctions against Haftar, something that might lead to a Russian veto.

Last year the UK was the penholder on 12 files including Libya, Myanmar and Yemen, and, although admired, Britain has been sometimes accused of not acting as an honest broker in that role, but instead using its influence to prevent difficult issues being aired.