UN, G7 FMs warn against military escalation in Libya, urge restraint

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The United Nations is determined to hold Libya's national conference on possible elections on time despite a surge of fighting in the country's eight-year conflict, the United Nations envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, said on Saturday.

Salame was speaking to reporters in Tripoli a day after Khalifa Haftar's forces said they had advanced into the capital's southern outskirts and taken its former international airport.

The UN aims to stage a conference in the southwestern town of Ghadames on April 14-16 to weigh elections as a way out of the country's factional anarchy, which has seen Islamist militants establish a toehold in some areas.

The UN Envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, speaks during a news conference in Tripoli, Libya, April 6, 2019. /VCG Photo

Salame said he was striving to prevent the new crisis from getting out of control. "We have worked for one year for this national conference, we won't give up this political work quickly," he said.

"We know that holding the conference in this difficult time of escalation and fighting is a difficult matter. But we are determined to hold it on time unless compelling circumstances force us not to."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres departed after meeting Haftar to try to avert full-blown civil war. "I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli," he said on Twitter.

Antonio Guterres meets with Haftar (R) at Haftar's office in the Rajma military base, 25 kilometers east of Libya's second city of Benghazi. /VCG Photo

Haftar must heed international warnings to halt his advance on Libya's capital, Italy's foreign minister said, as powers from the G7 club said there could be no military solution to the country's power struggle.

"We very much hope Haftar will take (our warnings) into consideration," Enzo Milanesi told reporters at the close of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in western France.

The turmoil in Libya dominated a summit which had been scheduled to focus on combating cybersecurity and foreign interference in liberal democracies and global inequality.

In a communique, the foreign ministers urged Libya's rival factions to show restraint and put the interests of the OPEC producer's people first. The country's oil installations should not be used by any group for political gain, it said.

"We are agreed that we must use all the possibilities at our disposal to exert pressure on those responsible in Libya especially General Haftar, so that we avoid any further military escalation," German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass told reporters.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian attends a news conference during the foreign ministers of G7 nations meeting in Dinard, France, April 6, 2019. /VCG Photo

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said at the end of the two-day meeting that rival factions in Libya needed to hold back and that Haftar should accept a UN-backed peace effort.

Le Drian said foreign ministers of the G7 broadly agreed on issues during a two-day meeting, but were unable to bridge differences on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how to deal with Iran.

In Cairo on Saturday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the crisis in neighboring Libya could not be resolved through military means, though insecurity there had long been a source of worry.

"Egypt has supported from the beginning a political agreement as a tool to prevent any military solution" in Libya, Shoukry said during a joint news conference with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov broadcast on state TV.

Lavrov said Russia wanted all political forces in Libya to find an agreement and warned against foreign meddling there.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told Haftar in a phone call on Saturday that Moscow continues to insist on political solution to "disputed issues" in Libya, according to Russia's foreign ministry.

(Cover: A local militiaman, belonging to a group opposed to Khalifa Haftar, stands next to vehicles the group said they seized from Haftar's forces in the coastal town of Zawiya, west of Tripoli, April 5, 2019. /VCG Photo)

(With inputs from Reuters)