President Emmanuel Macron wants to meet Libyan eastern commander Khalifa Haftar to push for a ceasefire and resume peace talks, France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Macron last week called for a ceasefire in the month-long battle for Libya’s capital Tripoli after meeting UN-backed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.
“The situation in Libya is extremely worrying because the proposed UN roadmap to both parties… has today failed on the one hand because of Field Marshal Haftar’s initiative and Serraj’s non-initiative,” FM Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers. “It’s for this reason that the president wanted to meet one and the other to support the UN initiative.”
A French diplomatic source could not confirm when the meeting could take place or whether Paris’ objective was to bring the two men together as it has done twice previously, Reuters said.