Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov held a meeting in Moscow on Monday with Khaled Mishri, the chairman of the Libyan High Council of State, an advisory body to the country's authorities, to address the settlement of the crisis in the Northern African country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th March, 2019) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov held a meeting in Moscow on Monday with Khaled Mishri, the chairman of the Libyan High Council of State, an advisory body to the country's authorities, to address the settlement of the crisis in the Northern African country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said."During the meeting, [the two sides had] a substantial exchange of views on the issue of the Libyan crisis settlement, with the emphasis on the necessity to have an inclusive political process having as its end goal the holding of general election and the formation of effective unified Libyan state institutions," the ministry said in a statement published on its official website.
Russia has also supported the idea of holding a national conference with the participation of all Libyan political forces and regions as part of the UN Action Plan for Libya, the statement said.
"The importance of maintaining an intensive Russian-Libyan political dialogue and using Russia's diplomatic potential as part of [efforts aimed at] contributing to sustainable stabilization [of the situation] in Libya, including the prospects of re-establishment of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries in various sectors, has been reaffirmed," the statement added.
As a result of years-long civil conflict in Libya, there is no single central government in the country, and its eastern and western parts are controlled by separate powers. The Tobruk-based parliament, elected in 2014 and backed by the Libyan National Army, governs the east of Libya, while the UN-supported Government of National Accord controls Libya's western parts from Tripoli.
As part of its Action Plan for Libya, the United Nations has tried to organize nationwide presidential and parliamentary elections last December, but the vote was then rescheduled for the spring of 2019.
Both the Government of National Accord and the High Council of State were created under the 2015 UN Libyan Political Agreement.
