BEIRUT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2020) Morocco has expressed deep astonishment by its exclusion from the Berlin conference on Libyan settlement scheduled for Sunday, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said.
"Morocco has always been at the forefront of international efforts to resolve the Libyan crisis ... Morocco understands neither the criteria nor the motivations behind the choice of the countries participating in this meeting," the statement published by the country's state-run Maghreb Arabe Presse read.
At the same time, Rabat reaffirmed its commitment to contribute to the search for a peaceful solution to the Libya crisis.
On Saturday, Tunisia refused to participate in the Berlin conference due to a late invitation to the event.
On Sunday, Berlin hosts a UN-led conference on Libya with the participation of Egypt, Russia, the United States and Turkey, among other countries. Both Fayez Sarraj, the head of the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), and Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the rival Libyan National Army (LNA), pledged to attend the event.
Libya is currently in the midst of a civil war between two rival administrations � the GNA, based in Tripoli to the west, and the LNA-supported elected parliament in the east. Over the past several weeks, the situation has escalated amid the LNA's advances on GNA-held Tripoli.
