UPDATE - Pompeo Hopes Berlin Conference Will Help At Least To Reduce Arms Flow To Libya

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th January, 2020) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hopes that the conference on Libyan settlement in Berlin will help at least reduce arms deliveries to Libya, as stipulated by the UN embargo.

"We talked a lot about the UN arms embargo and the fact that there are many nations that are violating that. There was lots of conversation about how it is we'll get these various participants who have been providing weapons systems that have been fueling this conflict, and the need to unwind that. I think we made progress, at least progress in getting fewer new weapons systems, fewer new forces to flow into the region, so that we can get at least a standstill [in hostilities]," Pompeo told reporters on Sunday, as quoted by the US State Department.

According to the secretary, this will allow to begin the process of political settlement, which all parties to the conference wanted.

The parties to the Berlin conference are sincerely committed to a ceasefire, Pompeo believes.

"There was progress made towards a full-fledged ceasefire, a truce, temporary stand-down. There's still a lot of work to do. It's a complicated battlefield. But you had [Turkish] President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, [German] Chancellor [Angela] Merkel, all making a sincere commitment; Special Representative [Ghassan] Salame who's running the UN ... making a sincere commitment and said we're going to do this - we're going to reduce risks, we're going to conduct the ceasefire," he said.

Pompeo admitted that he was optimistic that there will be less violence and there will be an opportunity to start negotiations that Salame tried to organize, stressing that now it is much more likely than before the meeting.

The secretary hopes that suspended oil operations in Libya will be resumed after the Berlin conference.

"There are important energy opportunities there in Libya. One of the things I did mention is that we hope that the closure that had taken place - the closure of some of the crude oil getting out - we hope that will be opened up as a result of this conversation as well," Pompeo said.

Representatives from a number of countries and organizations, including Russia, the United States, Turkey, Egypt, the European Union, the United Nations and the African Union, have met in Berlin on Sunday to find solutions to the conflict in the North African country.

The Berlin conference was held after the intra-Libyan talks in Moscow with the participation of representatives of the Russia and Turkey. Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), which controls the country's east, then left Moscow without signing a ceasefire agreement with the rival Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli and led by Fayez Sarraj.

Libya has been torn apart between the two rival administrations since 2011, when its long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed.