Libya Roadmap Committee Kicks off Efforts to Resolve Crisis

Libyans shop at a mall in Tripoli. (AFP)
Libyans shop at a mall in Tripoli. (AFP)
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Libya Roadmap Committee Kicks off Efforts to Resolve Crisis

Libyans shop at a mall in Tripoli. (AFP)
Libyans shop at a mall in Tripoli. (AFP)

Libya's parliament and High Council of State denied that their leaders had arranged to hold a meeting outside the country.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary committee has kicked off its work in drafting a new roadmap to end the country's crisis.

The committee met for a second time in the capital, Tripoli. It will be in contact with all Libyan political, military, security sides and others as it attempts to resolve the crisis.

It said it will first meet with the High Council of State and national authority tasked with drafting the constitution. It will also meet with the Presidential Council and political parties.

An aide to the parliament speaker denied reports that Aguila Saleh was scheduled to meet with head of the High Council of State Khalid al-Mishri in Morocco on Sunday.

He stressed that Saleh has not yet regained his position as speaker in order to hold talks with any official figure.

A spokesman for the High Council of State also denied that Mishri had traveled to Morocco to meet with Saleh.

Separately, head of the Government of National Unity (GNU), Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah met with Qatar's Ambassador to Libya, Khaled al-Dosari, in Tripoli.

The envoy stressed his country's keenness on developing ties with Libya and activating bilateral agreements.



Lebanon Hopes for Neighborly Relations in First Message to New Syria Government

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon Hopes for Neighborly Relations in First Message to New Syria Government

Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (C) arrives for a meeting with visiting Druze officials from Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.

Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel - a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.

Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, opposition factions captured the capital Damascus.

Syria's new de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.