Libya ceasefire: rivals fail to reach agreement

Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya’s UN-recognized government in Tripoli, and his rival Khalifa Haftar have failed to reach an agreement for a ceasefire.

Both rivals were in Moscow on Monday for talks with top diplomats and military officials from Russia and Turkey. The talks lasted about seven hours, and al-Sarraj and Haftar did not meet directly.

According to Turkishminute, Haftar did not sign the document before leaving Moscow but requested more time to consider it after both parties previously considered the draft document spelling out details of a truce proposed jointly by Russia and Turkey that began Sunday.

Al-Sarraj, on the other hand, signed the draft before departing.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sought to downplay the talks’ failure, saying that efforts to broker a peace deal will continue.

“We all work in the same direction and urge all the sides [of the conflict] in Libya to negotiate instead of trying to sort things out violently,” Lavrov said Tuesday in Sri Lanka.

In the meantime, the United Nations urged the opposing governments “to continue to adhere to the announced cease-fire.” In a statement Tuesday the UN Support Mission in Libya asked both sides “to give the ongoing diplomatic efforts an opportunity to yield a more permanent cessation of hostilities.”

Russia and Turkey welcomed Germany’s plan to hold a Libya peace summit in Berlin later this month.