Berlin: Military leader committed to ceasefire
BERLIN - A Libyan military commander waging an offensive to capture the capital Tripoli is committed to a ceasefire, Germany said on Thursday, in an apparent advance for efforts to end a near-decade of turmoil in the North African country.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, after visiting the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, also said commander Khalifa Haftar is willing to attend a conference in Berlin on Sunday about the conflict.
Mr Haftar’s office was not available for comment. But three sources close to the matter told Reuters that Mr Haftar was expected to have talks in Athens on Friday with Greece’s prime minister and foreign minister during a stopover on his way to Berlin.
Mr Maas’s comment follows failed efforts by Russia and Turkey to persuade Mr Haftar on a visit to Moscow this week to agree to a lasting ceasefire and halt the offensive on Tripoli. Mr Haftar left Moscow without signing the proposal.
The nine-month-old war over Tripoli is just the latest bout of chaos in Libya, an OPEC member that has become a hub for human traffickers to ship migrants by boats to Italy, while Islamist militants have exploited the widespread disorder.
“If developments in Libya are allowed to continue, then Libya will be the next Syria and we don’t want that to happen,” Mr Maas said later on German television.
The conference to be hosted by Germany on Sunday would bring together Libyan rival camps and the foreign powers that support them to try to end the war over Tripoli and resume talks on a power sharing deal.