Libya PM to hold talks with Haftar

Al Sarraj confirms he will soon meet rival general in Cairo to ‘search for a solution’

ROME // The head of Libya’s unity government is planning to hold talks with a rival field marshal to try to halt the country’s descent into chaos.

Fayez Al Sarraj, head of the Government of National Accord, said he would meet Khalifa Haftar, whose forces support a rival administration, in Cairo, “possibly within days”.

“I confirm the meeting will take place soon,” Mr Al Sarraj told Italian daily Corriere della Sera, adding that he and Field Marshal Haftar would “search for a solution for Libya”.

Libya has been riven by lawlessness and violence since the 2011 dismissal and killing of longtime strongman Muammar Qaddafi, with rival parliaments and armed groups vying for control of the country and its oil wealth.

Mr Al Sarraj’s UN-backed government was installed in Tripoli last year but has struggled to assert itself farther east, where a rival parliament and Field Marshal Haftar’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army ( LNA) hold sway.

Egypt said last week it was working to organise direct talks between the leaders.

Mr Al Sarraj said the meeting would be “face to face, without mediation” but warned that the two sides remained far apart.

“To insist only on the force of arms will drag us into a bloody civil war with massacres and anarchy,” he said.

It is unclear whether the Cairo talks will involve Russia, which has recently indicated support for Field Marshal Haftar, who reportedly made several visits to Moscow last year.

In the second city Benghazi yesterday, forces loyal to Field Marshal Haftar who are battling extremists, said they had taken one of the last remaining strongholds of the militants.

Libya’s tumult has allowed extremists including ISIL to gain a toehold, but the group was forced from its stronghold of Sirte in December. Field Marshal Haftar’s men have battled ISIL for more than two years, especially around Benghazi.

Field Marshal Haftar’s LNA “liberated all of Qanfouda”, an area 15 kilometres west of the centre of Benghazi, spokesman Ahmed Al Mesmari said.

Two other LNA officials confirmed the seizure.

One of the officials said there were still militants from the Al Qaeda-linked Ansar Al Sharia group present near Qanfouda.

Field Marshal Haftar’s forces and rival fighters loyal to a UN-backed government have inflicted a string of setbacks on the extremists.