Putin, EC president voice support for transitional authorities in Libya

MOSCOW (TASS): Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Council President Charles Michel have expressed support for Libya’s transitional authorities. The issue was discussed in a telephone conversation on Monday, the Kremlin’s press service said.

“Putin and Michel came out for the further promotion of the political process and support for the bodies of power formed for the transitional period,” the news release says.

Until just recently, Libya had two parallel bodies of executive power — the Government of National Acord under Fayez Sarraj in Tripoli and the interim government enjoying the support of Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army and parliament in the east of the country. The armed forces of both sides were engaged in prolonged hostilities.

On October 23 last year, the five-plus-fie committee (five military delegates from the GNA and the LNA each) met in Geneva to put signatures to an agreement on the permanent ceasefire. At the beginning of February, after UN-brokered talks, the prime minister of the interim government Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and three members of Libya’s Presidential Council were elected. Both bodies of power were sworn into office on March 15 and began to perform their duties in Tripoli. Their main task is to unite fragmented bodies of power across the country and also to prepare for and hold parliamentary and presidential elections in Libya on December 24, 2021.