MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2020) Both parties in Libya's ongoing conflict have heeded Russian and Turkish calls for a ceasefire, despite the Libyan National Army (LNA) refusing to sign a ceasefire deal at last week's intra-Libyan talks in Moscow, as large-scale military operations have since subsided, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.
"We took a very positive step during the meeting in Istanbul, we called on both parties in Libya to observe a ceasefire, to cease hostilities, and despite the fact that certain incidents still occur, both sides have heeded our call and large-scale military actions have stopped," Putin said during a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan before Sunday's Libya peace conference in Berlin.
Putin stated that this was a positive result and helped create the prerequisite conditions for Sunday's summit in the German capital. The Russian president also noted the intra-Libyan talks that took place in Moscow on Monday, which concluded with the LNA refusing to sign a ceasefire deal, after the UN-backed Government of National Accord agreed to the terms.
"We worked energetically together to bring a positive conclusion to the meeting of the conflicting parties in Moscow. The very fact that they arrived in Moscow, conducted negotiations not only with us, and with each other, I think that we should thank our colleagues, the foreign and defense ministers, who made every effort to ensure that the conflicting parties agreed and supported a joint agreement," Putin remarked.
The Russian president added that Moscow had not lost hope that a signed ceasefire deal could be reached in the near future.
"Indeed, not everything was successful. One of the sides has so far, in any case, not supported it [a ceasefire agreement], but we do not lose hope that dialogue will continue and we will sincerely strive to ensure the resolution of the conflict," Putin stated.
