Libyan National Army General Khalifa Haftar has left Moscow without signing a ceasefire agreement to end nine months of fighting in the country, the Russian foreign ministry confirmed to AFP Tuesday.
Russia will continue pushing for a ceasefire agreement in Libya, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, after Haftar left the talks.
“We will pursue our efforts in this direction. For now a definitive result has not been achieved,” Lavrov said at a press conference in Colombo.
Russia’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army, had been positive about a ceasefire deal drafted at talks in Moscow and is taking two days to discuss it, the Interfax news agency reported.
The rival sides in the Libya conflict have agreed to uphold a ceasefire despite strongman Khalifa Haftar delaying signing permanent terms for the truce, the Russian defense ministry said Tuesday.
Haftar and the head of Tripoli-based government Fayez al-Sarraj on Monday struck “an agreement in principle… to maintain the ongoing ceasefire,” the ministry said in a statement.
General Haftar on Monday evening asked until Tuesday morning to look over the agreement already signed by the head of UN-recognized government Fayez al-Sarraj, but left the Russian capital without signing, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
