Summit nations endorse arms embargo, ceasefire

BERLIN — Countries with interests in Libya’s longrunning civil war agreed Sunday to respect a muchviolated arms embargo, hold off on military support to the warring parties and push them to reach a full ceasefire, German and U.N. leaders said.

The agreement came after about four hours of talks in Berlin. German Chancellor Anglea Merkel hosted leaders of 11 countries involved in the conflict, with Libya’s two main rival leaders also in the German capital but not at the main conference table.

Organizers knew that “we had to succeed in getting all the parties that connected in any way with the Libya conflict to speak with one voice … because then the parties inside Libya will also understand that there is only a nonmilitary way to a solution,” Merkel said. “We achieved this result here.”

Among those who attended were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The participants agreed that “we want to respect the arms embargo, and that the arms embargo will be more strongly controlled than was the case in the past,” she said. She added that the results of the conference should be endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.

Libya’s main rival leaders, Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj and Gen. Khalifa Hifter, said the two named members of a military committee that will represent them at talks on a more permanent ceasefire, Merkel said. U.N. SecretaryGeneral Guterres said that the committee would be convened “in Geneva in the coming days.”

Merkel said the summit participants agreed that they will give no further support to the warring parties in Libya ahead of the committee’s meeting and “cease operations as long as the ceasefire holds.”

Guterres said the Berlin conference had succeed in fending off “the risk of a true regional escalation.”

Libya has sunk further into chaos since the 2011 ouster and killing of its longtime dictator, Moammar Khadafy. It is now divided into rival administrations, each backed by different nations: the U.N.recognized government based in Tripoli, headed by Sarraj, and one based in the country’s east, supported by Hifter’s forces.

Hifter’s forces have been on the offensive since April, laying siege to Tripoli in an effort to capture the capital. Hifter’s forces are backed by Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, while the Tripoli government has turned to Turkey for troops and weapons.