TEHRAN (Iran News) – The Head of Libyan internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj and his rival, renegade Commander Khalifa Haftar, is expected to sign a ceasefire deal in Russia on Monday, a senior Libyan official said. The signing of the ceasefire deal will pave the way for the revival of the political […]
TEHRAN (Iran News) – The Head of Libyan internationally-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj and his rival, renegade Commander Khalifa Haftar, is expected to sign a ceasefire deal in Russia on Monday, a senior Libyan official said.
The signing of the ceasefire deal will pave the way for the revival of the political process, stated Libyan Head of High Council of State Khaled al-Mechri on the country’s Al-Ahrar TV channel.
Mechri added that he would accompany al-Sarraj to Moscow, while Aguila Salah, the speaker of the Eastern-based parliament, would travel with Haftar.
The oil-rich North African country has been racked by turmoil since longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. It has since been split between rival administrations in the country’s East and the West amid a conflict drawing increasing involvement from foreign powers.
The Tripoli-based GNA has been under attack since last April from Eastern forces loyal to Haftar, the Libyan National Army (LNA), which in early January captured the strategic coastal city of Sirte.
Separate, the Interfax news agency cited a Russian official as saying that al-Sarraj and Haftar will arrive in Moscow on Monday and discuss “the possibility of signing a truce and the details of such a document”.
Lev Dengov, the head of the Russian contact group on Libya, noted it is still unclear whether the two rivals will meet face to face.
Meanwhile, in a short televised speech on Monday, al-Sarraj called on Libyans to “turn the page on the past”.
“I call on all Libyans to turn the page on the past, reject discord and to close ranks to move towards stability and peace,” he added.
The GNA and Haftar’s LNA agreed to a conditional truce that was supposed to come into force at midnight local time on Sunday (22:01 GMT on Saturday), but both sides have accused the other of violations.
- source : FNA, Iran News
