Prolonged Libyan Crisis Result of NATO Intervention in 2011 - Russian Foreign Minister

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2019) The protracted crisis in Libya is the result of direct intervention by NATO, which led the country into chaos and made it a source of instability, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"The protracted crisis in Libya is a direct consequence of NATO's illegitimate military intervention. As a result, this country was plunged into chaos, became a source of regional instability, a hotbed of terrorism," Lavrov said in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram on the eve of his visit to Cairo.

Tensions are on the rise in the North African nation after the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, moved west and started clashing with rival forces just south of the capital Tripoli.

On Friday, the LNA again started advancing on the capital.

Libya has been split up in two since a NATO-led military intervention deposed its longtime ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011. The UN-backed Government of National Accord headed by Fayez Sarraj in the capital of Tripoli is rivaled by a Tobruk-based parliament in the east, which support Haftar.