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Sarraj refuses to meet with Haftar in Moscow

Currently Libya has two parallel bodies of executive power: the internationally recognized Government of National Accord and the interim government, operating in the country’s east together with the parliament and supported by Haftar’s Libyan National Army

CAIRO, January 13. /TASS/. The head of Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Sarraj, has emphatically refused to meet with the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Khalifa Haftar, the chief of Libya’s High Council of State, Khaled al-Mishri, said on Monday.

"We have refused to have a meeting with Haftar. We will not agree to be seated with him at the same table under any circumstance. The talks in Moscow are being held with our Turkish and Russian friends," the television broadcaster Al Arabiya quotes al-Mishri as saying.

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The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday Sarraj and Haftar would participate in negotiations in Moscow under the aegis of the Russian and Turkish foreign and defense ministries. On Sunday evening al-Mishri told the television channel that a ceasefire agreement was to be signed in Moscow.

A ceasefire took effect starting from January 12 midnight between Libya’s conflicting parties within the framework of a joint initiative proposed by the Russian and Turkish presidents.

Currently Libya has two parallel bodies of executive power: the internationally recognized GNA and Abdullah Abdurrahman al-Thani’s interim government, operating in the country’s east together with the parliament and supported by Haftar’s LNA. After a prolonged standoff near Tripoli since April 4, Haftar declared the beginning of a decisive push towards the capital on December 12.

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