Russia supports the latest decisions of the five-plus-five joint military committee on the withdrawal of all foreign military personnel from Libya, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday at a press conference following talks with Libya's Government of National Unity (GNU) Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush.
"We confirmed the Russian Federation's support for those decisions taken within the framework of the five-plus-five joint military committee, including those taken at its meeting five days ago, including on the need to withdraw all foreign military personnel from Libyan territory without exception," he said.
Lavrov added that the Libyan delegation also briefed Russia on developments in the implementation of agreements in the political sphere. "As you remember, these agreements include preparations for general elections at the end of December this year," the minister continued. - "We agree with our Libyan colleagues on the need to accelerate the development of the legislative framework for the electoral process so that it can be approved in parliament as soon as possible".
"We agreed that we will continue to build up our contacts between our foreign ministries and exchange assessments on the crises and conflicts that persist in the Middle East and North Africa," the Russian foreign minister said.
Last October 23 in Geneva, participants of the five-plus-five committee, which included five military men from the formations of the Government of National Accord (GNA) of Fayez Sarraj and the Libyan National Army (LNA) of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, signed a permanent cease-fire agreement. As a result, in early February, following UN-mediated negotiations, a prime minister of a unified government and three members of Libya's Presidential Council were elected. Both were sworn in on 15 March and assumed their duties in Tripoli. Their main task is to unify the disparate power structures throughout the country and to prepare and conduct presidential and parliamentary elections in Libya on December 24, 2021, to be held in Libya.
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Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS