Italy FM visits Libya, meets with Sarraj

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio yesterday visited Tripoli to meet with representatives of Libya’s internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

Di Maio held talks with the GNA’s Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj and met Foreign Minister Taha Siala and Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha.

He did not, however, meet with any officials from the GNA’s rival Libyan National Army (LNA) headed by renegade General Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar launched an offensive in April 2019 to capture the country’s capital from the GNA’s control. Last week his forces suffered huge loses and were forced to retreat.

READ: UN ‘alarmed’ by continued military mobilisation in Libya

Di Maio’s visit to Tripoli comes only days after he met in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, where the two leaders expressed their commitment to ending the fighting in Libya and the creation of long-lasting peace in the war-torn country.

Turkey backs the GNA in its battle against Haftar.