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European Council chief Charles Michel to attend Berlin conference on Libya

The international conference on Libya will take place on January 19 in Berlin
European Council President Charles Michel Alexei Nikolsky/TASS
European Council President Charles Michel
© Alexei Nikolsky/TASS

BRUSSELS, January 14. /TASS/. European Council head Charles Michel will attend the Berlin conference on Libyan regulation set to take place on January 19, the European Council's press service informed on Tuesday.

Michel’s weekly agenda informs that he will give an address in Berlin at 14:00 local time (16:00 Moscow time).

The international conference on Libya will take place on January 19 in Berlin. The German government’s press service informed on Tuesday that Russia, the US, China, the UK, Italy, France, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates, the Republic of the Congo, along with representatives of the UN, the EU, the African Union and the Arab League are set to take part in the conference.

During a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on January 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that in order to make the conference fruitful, its participants must be genuinely interested in facilitating Libyan regulation, pre-approving all its decisions with the Libyan parties.

At midnight on January 12, a ceasefire proposed by Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan entered into force in Libya as part of a larger initiative to achieve peace in the country. The ceasefire’s objective is to stop hostilities between the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) sitting in Tripoli. On Monday, representatives of the parties to the conflict arrived in Moscow for talks, after which GNA envoys signed a ceasefire agreement.

Haftar took a pause to study the agreement. However, later he left Moscow without putting his signature under the document, Arab media outlets reported. In the early hours of January 14, armed clashes re-erupted in the south of Tripoli —  the target of a decisive offensive declared by Haftar in December. The LNA issued a statement declaring "readiness and determination to win."