ANKARA, January 15. /TASS/. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu hopes that Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in the conference on Libyan regulation, set to take place on January 19 in Berlin.
"In the upcoming period, we will continue to apply efforts [on Libyan regulation]. We wish for a permanent ceasefire to be established in Libya and for the sides to begin the process of political regulation. [Turkish and Russian] Presidents [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and [Vladimir] Putin will take part in the Berlin summit on January 19. This shows how important peace in Libya is to us," the Turkish top diplomat stressed during a press conference at the SETA foundation in Ankara.
Earlier, the Kremlin stated that it would inform of Putin’s participation in the conference in due time.
During a press conference on the outcomes of the meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on January 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that in order to achieve success during the conference, its participants must be genuinely interested in aiding Libyan regulation, pre-approving all its decisions with the Libyan parties.
Earlier, the German government initiated a series of international meetings on Libya with the participation of high-ranking officials from various states, including Russia. The stipulated aim of these meeting is to aid the efforts of UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Libya Ghassan Salame. The first meeting was held in Berlin on September 17, 2019. Representatives of Russia, the UK, Egypt, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Turkey, France, the Arab League and the EU participated in the talks.
On January 12, a ceasefire in Libya proposed by Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a larger initiative to achieve peace in the country entered into force at midnight. The ceasefire’s objective was 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 south Tripoli - the target of a decisive offensive declared by Haftar in December. The LNA issued a statement declaring "readiness and determination to achieve victory.".