France to host Haftar for Libya ceasefire talks

PARIS, FRANCE – MAY 29: French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian (R) welcomes Military commander who dominates eastern Libya, Khalifa Haftar prior to an International conference on Libya at the Elysee Presidential Palace on May 29, 2018, in Paris France. Macron today receives African heads of state and rival Libyan leaders in Paris at an international conference on Libya to encourage all major Libyan actors to reconciliation through the ballot box. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

France’s President Emmanuel Macron is set to meet Libya’s Khalifa Haftar to push for a ceasefire and resume peace talks.

Macron last week called for a ceasefire in the battle for Libya’s capital Tripoli after meeting UN-recognised Libyan Head of  the Presidential Council Fayez Al-Sirraj.

“The situation in Libya is extremely worrying because the proposed UN roadmap to both parties – and which almost reached a positive conclusion – has today failed on the one hand because of Field Marshal Haftar’s initiative and Sarraj’s non-initiative,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told legislators.

Le Drian added that it’s for this reason that Macron wanted to meet one and the other to support the UN initiative.

The French presidency said there was no meeting planned at this stage.

The GNA has previously rejected any ceasefire unless Haftar pulls his troops back to the areas they held before April 04, in the south and east of the country.

The weeks of fighting have killed more than 430 people and wounded at least 2,110 others, while displacing more than 55,000, the World Health Organization said.

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