LIBYA: Rivals in rare UAE meeting for face-to-face talks

Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya’s UN-backed government, has met renegade general Khalifa Haftar in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a rare meeting between the key figures from two rival Libyan camps. The two men met face-to-face in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the LANA news agency said, for only the second time since Sarraj […]

Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of Libya’s UN-backed government, has met renegade general Khalifa Haftar in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a rare meeting between the key figures from two rival Libyan camps.

The two men met face-to-face in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the LANA news agency said, for only the second time since Sarraj was named prime minister-designate after a UN-backed deal in late 2015.

Sarraj and the Government of National Accord’s (GNA) other leaders arrived in Tripoli in March 2016, but they have been unable to gain recognition from the elected parliament based in the eastern city of Tobruk, which supports Haftar, head of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).

Sarraj and Haftar met “thanks to international and Arab mediation”, according to LANA, which is loyal to the Tobruk-based parliament, after a first meeting in January last year.