Fayez Sarraj, the head of Government of National Accord (GNA) on Monday expressed optimism regarding the willingness of the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar, to follow the agreements reached during the Berlin conference.
“After the Berlin conference we are cautiously optimistic about whether the other side will follow the agreements,” he told Al Jazeera TV channel.
At the same time, Sarraj stated that the GNA had no domestic partner in the Libyan peace process.
“We have no real partner to reach progress in the Libyan peace process,” he added.
On Sunday, the international conference on Libya took place in the German capital, counting Russia, the United States, the European Union, Turkey and Egypt among its participants. Both Sarraj and Haftar were present as well, although they failed to have direct talks with each other. The sides agreed on a ceasefire and noninvolvement of third parties in the conflict and offered to create a special commission to monitor the peace process.
After the ouster and assassination of then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the country was plunged into a political turmoil. Today, Libya is divided between two centres of power — an elected parliament in the country’s east, supported by Haftar’s LNA, and the UN-backed GNA in the west.
