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German FM thinks reaching agreement on Libya in Berlin is possible

14 January 2020 21:55 (UTC +04:00)

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas thinks that participants in the upcoming Berlin conference on Libya can reach a compromise. He made the statement on Tuesday before a parliamentary session, APOA reports citing DPA.

"We think that we can reach an agreement with all the participants in the conference," the DPA news agency quotes Maas as saying. "It [the agreement — TASS] is a prerequisite for finding a political solution to the conflict in Libya instead of a military one." The German top diplomat noted that the mediation efforts of Russia and Turkey aid the search for a solution on Libya; however, crisis regulation requires a comprehensive approach.

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.

At midnight 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. 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 south Tripoli — the target of a decisive offensive declared by Haftar in December. The LNA issued a statement declaring "readiness and determination to win."