The United Nations special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salameh met on Thursday with Commander of Libyan National Army Khalifa Haftar in the eastern city of Benghazi.
On its official Facebook page, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) confirmed Salameh’s meeting with Haftar, who is affiliated with Libya’s Tobruk-based parliament.
In a series of tweets, Salemeh said that Marshal Haftar expressed support for him and the UN Action Plan for Libya, and he informed him of his views for advancing political process.
Salemeh also updated Haftar on outcomes of House of Representatives and High Council of State Joint Drafting Committee meetings in Tunisia and next steps to resolve the Libyan crisis.
On Wednesday, Salameh met with Aqila Saleh, speaker of the Tobruk-based parliament, which announced that its members will be invited to attend two meetings at its headquarters next week to discuss conclusions reached during the meetings that were held in Tunisia.
The UN envoy’s sudden round of shuttle diplomacy comes only two weeks after he proposed a “roadmap” for resolving Libya’s ongoing political crisis.
In a common matter, Head of the High Council of the State Abdulrahman al-Suwaihli is set to meet Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano in Italy’s capital, Rome, today.
Alfano will receive Suwaihili at the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters in Rome, according to Italian news agency Aki, which also said that Italy has received several Libyan officials; the most recent was Ahmed Maiteeq, Vice Chairman of the Presidential Council of Libya and Deputy Prime Minister of Libya, preceded by Field Marshal Haftar.
Moreover, during the celebration of the 44th anniversary of the war of October 6, 1973, Haftar pledged in a statement, issued by the Libyan National Army Command on Thursday, that “we, as military personnel, will not waste our historical gains, and we will not let go of any inch of our land.”
The statement said that “the Libyan national army stands with all the glory and pride before one of the Arab nation’s eternal memories made by the Egyptian army, and we had the honor to participate in it.”
“It is a glorious memory in the history of the Arab armies, which played an active role in proving the power and strength of the Arab soldier.”
In the field, militant clashes between armed militias renewed overnight in Tripoli on Wednesday, where residents and security sources said skirmishes took place near the Qasr Bin Ghashir district south of the city.
The Government of National Accord, which is supposed to manage the affairs of the capital, made no comment on the clashes that are the second in a week.
