On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the efforts being undertaken by Moscow in persuading the warring parties in Libya to begin negotiations — saying, “we are currently working on this”.
After meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Moscow, Lavrov said that the intervention by external parties in the Libyan conflict has led to a breakdown in negotiations.
Lavrov stated that Russia’s approach to the Syrian conflict can be applied to Libya.
Its main feature was prompting the warring parties to hold peace talks and provide necessary conditions so that they could find common ground.
“The only thing left is to convince the Libyan parties that they should sit down at the table and start negotiations”, he said.
Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Since 2015, two ruling powers have emerged – the UN-recognised Government of National Accord based in Tripoli and a parallel interim government in the east of the country that is led by the democratically elected House of Representatives.