The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that on Monday there will be inter-Libyan contacts under the auspices of the heads of the Russian and Turkish Foreign Ministries and Ministries of Defence, which are expected to be attended by the head of the Libyan National Accord government, Fayez Sarraj, and the head of the Libyan National Army, Marshal Khalifa Haftar, as well as representatives of other Libyan parties.
"In the context of implementing the initiative of the presidents of Russia and Turkey, which was announced as a result of the Istanbul summit, Moscow will host intra-Libyan contacts under the auspices of the heads of Russia's and Turkey's foreign and defense ministries today," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Sarraj, Haftar and representatives of other Libyan parties are expected to take part in the contacts," the ministry added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed last week on a common stance on Libya, calling for a comprehensive ceasefire and negotiations between the conflicting parties.
The situation in Libya has escalated over the past several weeks as LNA commander Haftar ordered his troops to advance on the Libyan capital of Tripoli, controlled by the UN-recognized GNA. The city has already experienced being a battleground of a similar attack in April when hundreds of people were left killed and thousands more injured.
After the ouster and assassination of then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the country was plunged into a brutal civil war. Today, Libya is divided between two centers of power: an elected parliament in the country's east, and the UN-backed GNA in the west.
