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DPA
Tripoli
Embattled areas south of the Libyan capital Tripoli have been calm in recent days as world powers attempt to turn a fragile ceasefire between opposing sides in the country’s civil war into a long-lasting truce.
Areas in southern Tripoli, where there has been months of heavy fighting, have seen only intermittent sounds of gunshots and artillery, witnesses told DPA.
Talks to resolve the Libya conflict have made progress in recent weeks.
Russia and Turkey negotiated a ceasefire during talks in Moscow earlier this month. After talks in Berlin on the weekend, international leaders vowed to uphold a UN arms embargo and end military support for the country’s warring factions.
Eastern Libya-based strongman Khalifa Haftar has led an offensive to seize Tripoli from Fayez Serraj’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) since April, but the fighting has reached a stalemate.
Serraj has United Nations backing and a Turkish force presence, while Haftar has the support of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
His forces control vast swathes of eastern and southern Libya.
Despite the risk of further hostilities, the UN special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, said he opposed the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the war-torn country, and that it was much more important to transform the ceasefire into a permanent truce.
He told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper that this requires a small number of military observers rather than UN troops.
He stressed the significance of Libya’s warring parties having agreed to let an international military committee conduct ceasefire negotiations.
At the Berlin conference, world powers agreed to set up a so-called International Follow-Up Committee (IFC), which is scheduled to meet for the first time in the German capital in mid-February.
Tripoli
Embattled areas south of the Libyan capital Tripoli have been calm in recent days as world powers attempt to turn a fragile ceasefire between opposing sides in the country’s civil war into a long-lasting truce.
Areas in southern Tripoli, where there has been months of heavy fighting, have seen only intermittent sounds of gunshots and artillery, witnesses told DPA.
Talks to resolve the Libya conflict have made progress in recent weeks.
Russia and Turkey negotiated a ceasefire during talks in Moscow earlier this month. After talks in Berlin on the weekend, international leaders vowed to uphold a UN arms embargo and end military support for the country’s warring factions.
Eastern Libya-based strongman Khalifa Haftar has led an offensive to seize Tripoli from Fayez Serraj’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) since April, but the fighting has reached a stalemate.
Serraj has United Nations backing and a Turkish force presence, while Haftar has the support of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
His forces control vast swathes of eastern and southern Libya.
Despite the risk of further hostilities, the UN special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, said he opposed the deployment of UN peacekeepers to the war-torn country, and that it was much more important to transform the ceasefire into a permanent truce.
He told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper that this requires a small number of military observers rather than UN troops.
He stressed the significance of Libya’s warring parties having agreed to let an international military committee conduct ceasefire negotiations.
At the Berlin conference, world powers agreed to set up a so-called International Follow-Up Committee (IFC), which is scheduled to meet for the first time in the German capital in mid-February.
