MOSCOW, June 8./TASS/. In a Monday’s telephone conversation with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised Cairo’s diplomatic efforts towards the settlement in Libya.
"The Russian side positively assessed the diplomatic efforts made by Egypt," the Kremlin press service said. The presidents "confirmed a mutual bid towards continuing coordination with an aim to ensure the soonest end of warfare and the launch of intra-Libyan talks under the UN auspices," the Kremlin said.
The phone call was initiated by Egypt, Libya was in the focus of attention. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi briefed President Putin on the subject matter of the talks in Cairo on June 6 with President of the Libyan House of Representatives Aguila Saleh and Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar, on the basis of which moves were proposed on the political settlement of the Libyan crisis.
Also, the presidents "looked into key issues of the development of Russian-Egyptian strategic partnership, including cooperation in the sectors of industry and nuclear power engineering, as well as cooperation in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic," the Kremlin press service reported.
Under the joint political initiative on the Libyan crisis resolution that was announced after the Cairo talks between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar, and Libya's parliament speaker, Aguila Saleh, a total ceasefire is to come into effect from 06:00 a.m. on June 8, and the joint military committee is to continue UN-brokered talks in Geneva. Moreover, the plan stipulates a gradual merger of power institutions to resume normal life in the country.
The Tripoli-based authorities however turned down the initiative on the same day. Thus, head of Libya’s High Council of State Khaled al-Mishri said that any peace initiative would be rejected unless it was based on the Skhirat political agreement.