Libya’s rivals urge Security Council to back ceasefire

cairo — Libya’s rivals wrapped up their military talks with a call to the UN Security Council to adopt a binding resolution to implement a ceasefire deal inked last month, the UN said.

The two-day talks in the oasis town of Ghadames, which concluded late Tuesday, were the first face-to-face negotiations inside Libya since last year’s months-long attack on the capital by forces loyal to the east-based military commander Khalifa Hifter.

The two sides agreed to meet again in the contested coastal city of Sirte sometime in November, and to form a sub-committee to oversee the return of all Libyan forces to their camps, as mentioned in the October 23 cease-fire reached in Geneva, the UN support mission in Libya said late Tuesday.

“This is the beginning of a process that is going to require determination, courage, confidence and a lot of work,” said the head of the UN support mission for Libya, Stephanie Williams, who headed the Ghadames talks.

She said they have discussed in detail a monitoring mechanism to implement the cease-fire agreement, which includes the departure of foreign forces and mercenaries from the oil-rich country within three months.

The agreement also called for “military deals on training inside Libya” to be frozen and for foreign trainees to leave the country. It did not name a particular country but apparently referred to Turkey, which has sent forces and mercenaries to train and fight alongside forces loyal to the UNsupported government in the west. —