UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame said on Tuesday there was a “genuine will to start negotiating” between rival military factions as they began talks in Geneva aimed at securing a lasting ceasefire.
The talks in Geneva bring together five military officers from Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) and five from forces aligned with the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
The UN-brokered talks are aimed at trust building and working out a monitoring mechanism for a ceasefire.
Salame said the two sides were aiming “to bridge the gaps in their views on how the lasting, sustainable ceasefire can be organized on the ground”.
“We started yesterday to discuss with them a long list of points on our agenda, starting on an attempt to transform the truce into a more solid one, less often violated by either side and also to transform that truce into a real agreement on a lasting ceasefire,” he said, according to Reuters.
The military talks come two weeks after an international summit in Berlin that was focused on charting a path towards a political solution and enforcing a UN arms embargo that has been routinely violated.
There was an escalation in fighting late last year, and a truce brokered by Russia and Turkey from Jan. 12 has been repeatedly violated.
The United Nations says weapons and fighters have continued to enter Libya since the Berlin meeting.
