Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, at a press conference in Moscow following an interview with his Libyan counterpart, Mohamed Siala, promised to give them maximum support for the peace efforts under way in Libya.
During this press conference he referred to a recent war appeal by Khalifa Haftar, a Libyan marshal, to continue a civil war that had ceased in October following a truce with the country's internationally recognised government. Lavrov appealed to both of them to engage in dialogue in order to put an end to the armed struggle.
He also stressed that cooperation between Russia and Turkey had led to a ceasefire in Libya and contributed to the organisation of the Berlin peace conference on the country. The recommendations approved were subsequently accepted by the UN Security Council.
Libya has been governed since 2015 by two rival authorities, the GNA which has been recognised by the UN and supported by Turkey and a power embodied by Marshal Khalifa Haflar. This was a consequence of Libya's fall into chaos with the decline of Muammar al-Qadhafi's regime.
In 2015, the legitimate government based in Tripoli was founded on the basis of an agreement sponsored by the UN. Efforts for a long-term agreement were unsuccessful due to the military offensive by forces loyal to Haftar. In April 2019 they launched an attack on the capital, which was repelled.
A ceasefire was agreed at the end of October and negotiations continue today for a provisional configuration before the presidential and parliamentary elections to be held on 24 December 2021.
Lavrov holds the West responsible for the conflict in the Middle East and North Africa. He also tries to take advantage of the Arab Spring process, calling it a "Western geopolitical experiment".
Finally, he stressed that the process of finding a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict faces real risks of failure and showed great concern about efforts to settle this confrontation.
The minister said that "the situation is very serious. Here, as in other cases, a leading and responsible role of the UN is needed to restart direct negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis" and he added that "the support of the quartet of international mediators and the Arab States is also needed".
