Tripoli: Libya’s Tripoli-based government warned it might not participate in future peace talks after alleging repeated truce violations and attacks on civilians by rival forces of commander Khalifa Haftar.
The administration headed by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj said on its official Facebook page on Monday that nations which brokered the cease-fire must shoulder their responsibility and help end the infractions.
The government, in light of the “continuing breaches, will be forced to reconsider its participation in any talks,” it said.
Each side has accused the other of breaching the truce, which they agreed to earlier this month. World leaders gathered at a conference in Berlin Jan. 19 hoped to cement the deal and begin winding down what has become a proxy war involving regional powers.
Adding to concern over the truce, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, described the spiralling violence as “quite worrying” and said international powers must put pressure on the two sides to end the conflict.
“We knew, everybody, that the result of the Berlin conference would not result in automatic implementation,” Borrell told reporters in Berlin on Monday alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. “Everybody knew it wasn’t an agreement that would be enforced tomorrow.”
On Sunday, the eastern-based commander’s Libyan National Army, the country’s most organised military force, launched an offensive about 100km southeast of the city of Misrata, but was repelled by fighters allied with Sarraj.
The LNA’s spokesman said the operation was intended to send a message to opposing militias, and didn’t amount to a breach of the cease-fire.
The United Nations warned on Saturday that none of the parties were honouring the terms of the accord, which was now threatened by the “ongoing transfer of foreign fighters, weapons, ammunition and advanced systems” to combatants.
The UN had been working for years for peace in Libya without much enduring success.
