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Intra-Libyan Military Committee to meet in Geneva on February 18 — UN

The first meeting of the Military Commission took place in Geneva on February 3 through 8

GENEVA, February 17. /TASS/. The intra-Libyan Joint Military Commission, which includes delegates from each party to the conflict, will meet in Geneva on February 18, the United Nations Support Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) said on its Twitter account on Monday.

"UNSMIL announces the resumption on February 18 of the intra-Libyan Joint Military Commission talks in Geneva, as supported by UNSCR 2510," it wrote. "We applaud the sense of responsibility and the serious and constructive spirit of the participants."

The mission expressed the hope that "this spirit is carried into the fully inclusive Libyan Political Forum scheduled to start on 26 February and urge all parties to seize the opportunity to respond positively."

The first meeting of the Military Commission took place in Geneva on February 3 through 8. This format is one of the three tracks of intra-Libyan talks, along with political and economic ones. After the talks, the UNSMIL said it hailed the fact that both sides had come to Geneva and expressed appreciation for "upholding in earnest the responsibilities they had been entrusted with as well as for the professional and positive spirit that characterized their discussions." "UNSMIL takes note of the existing consensus around the importance of maintaining the truce that had been announced on 12 January this year, of the necessity to respect it and refrain from violating it," it said.

Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Ghassan Salam·, said after the talks that progress had been reach on many important matters but "a significant number of points of convergence" were still in place.

Berlin hosted a high-level international conference on Libyan settlement on January 19, with at least ten heads of state and government, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, taking part. In their final document, participants in the Berlin meeting called for a ceasefire in Libya, reaffirmed their commitment to refrain from interfering into Libya’s affairs, suggested a unified government be formed and reforms be launched to restore Libya’s state system destroyed by NATO’s intervention of ten years ago. The conflicting parties also agreed to set up a commission to monitor the ceasefire.

Libya currently has two parallel bodies of executive power, namely the internationally recognized Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) and the interim government, seated in the east of the country, along with the parliament, which is supported by the Libyan National Army (LNA).