France bringing top Libyan rivals together in new initiative
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will host a meeting of the two main rival leaders of chaotic Libya, his office said Monday, to try to “contribute to an end to the Libyan crisis,” which is feeding Islamic militants, people traffickers preying on migrants and instability in the region.
The head of Libya’s unity government, Fayez Sarraj, and Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the Egyptian-backed commander of Libya’s self-styled national army, are to meet on Tuesday at a chateau in La Celle Saint-Cloud, outside the French capital, the presidential Elysee Palace said. However, the two were already in Paris a day before the encounter hard at work with French experts to find common ground.
Macron is to meet separately with the U.N.-backed Libyan prime minister and the general, who has the support of the internationally recognized parliament in the country’s east, before the two hold a face-to-face encounter with the U.N.’s newly appointed special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame.
French officials hope the two can agree on a joint declaration, “simple but constructive,” an official in the French president’s office said. The official could not be named in keeping with presidential policy.