On Saturday, the spokesman for the Libyan National Army, Major General Ahmed Al-Mismari, said that the ceasefire agreement in Libya will face challenges, but said, “We will work to overcome them.”
In a statement published on his official Facebook account, Al-Mismari said, “We are fully committed to the Geneva ceasefire agreement, which is consistent with our vision of combating terrorism and disbanding militias.”
He added that the Turkish President is the only person who opposed the ceasefire agreement in Libya. Al Mismari also stressed that “the agreement does not include our war against extremists and terrorists.”
The LNA spokesman pointed out that the Operation Dignity (known as Karama in Arabic), launched in May 2014, was aimed at eliminating terrorism and its hotbeds across the country.
He continued, “We hope that the ceasefire agreement will lead to a political solution,” adding: “The agreement needs a fair and real guarantor, in addition to a deterrent force for the implementation of its items.”
Last week, Al-Mismari said that “excluding Turkey from the Libyan scene is a priority” to ensure that peace talks will be successful.
Turkey has been backing the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) with thousands of Syrian mercenaries, Turkish troops and logistics, and has a military base at Al-Watiya in northwest Libya. Between them, they control western and north-western Libya.
Libya’s two main warring factions agreed to a ceasefire on Friday, raising hopes for an end to years of bloody turmoil that have drawn in military forces from Russia, Turkey and other regional powers.
The two sides signed the agreement at the United Nations in Geneva at the end of a weeklong meeting of delegates from the two Libyan warring sides.
The two sides agreed to a complete, countrywide and permanent agreement with immediate effect, said Stephanie Williams, the United Nations acting special envoy who was chairwoman of the most recent talks.
She said the agreement called for frontline forces to return to their bases and for the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries within three months, a process that would be monitored by the United Nations.