Libya political talks end with no result, heavy bombing round Mitiga airport
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The UN envoy for Libya on Friday said three days of political talks in Geneva, as part of the peace process to get a cease-fire in the conflict-ridden country, ended without any result.
The talks that began on Feb. 26 only managed to plan an agenda and terms of reference for the next round of talks with no concrete steps toward a cease-fire, said Ghassan Salamshe, the special representative of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
“There have been serious violations of the conflict agreement in the country in the past 24 hours,” Salame said, noting the airport in Tripoli had been bombarded and that many parts of the capital were bombed.
He said he was “surprised” when on the first day of talks, six of the 13 representatives of the Hight State Council left for Libya saying they were asked to do so.
Salame said he would invite the parties to Geneva for a second-round next month and try to find out as to why they had suddenly left.
As the talks in Geneva were wrapping up, there was heavy bombing round Mitiga airport in Tripoli, the only functioning airport in the Libyan capital.
Projectiles numbering anything from 40-100, seem to have been fired by the Khalifa Hafter forces. Residents reported it was one of the worse single days of being under fire in a long time.
Abusleem, the area around Rixos hotel, the area surrounding Mitiga and Mitiga airport itself took the heaviest pounding. Passengers at Mitiga were terrified and forced to abandon their baggage as the airport was closed for the umpteenth time in recent months.
