Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar whose forces have been battling to capture the seat of the UN-recognized government in Tripoli since April, said he was open to “dialogue”.
“When all is said and done, we need dialogue and we need to sit down” at the negotiating table, Haftar said in a statement issued Wednesday night.
Hours later, France and Italy brought together the conflict’s regional actors in a special Thursday session on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Their mission: to unify the international community and coalesce around the best way out of the conflict.
Tripoli based Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj is backed by Turkey and Qatar, the latter of which was absent from the table. Haftar’s allies, the UAE and Egypt, sat on the other side, as the small diplomatic gathering got under way.
The idea was to organize “political pressure on the main actors supporting each (Libyan) faction so that they might conclude that it’s time to stop the military competition game and proxy war,” a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
Haftar’s declaration was a positive sign after his faction declared only weeks prior that a “military solution” was the only way out.
Haftar has repeatedly hammered home that dialogue would “not be possible so long as terrorist groups and criminal militias control… Tripoli” in reference to forces loyal to the GNA.
