With their statehood destroyed by NATO, Libya’s warring sides should come to terms, not fight each other – Lavrov

Major world powers are pushing Libya’s warring factions to find a way out of the conflict that has ravaged the country since 2011’s “criminal and illegitimate” NATO bombings annihilated its statehood, Sergey Lavrov has said. 

All nations interested in bringing lasting peace to Libya – among them key European and Middle Eastern powers – “are acting in the same direction and are encouraging all Libyan parties to come to an agreement, rather than continuing to sort things out by force,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

These days, we are working exactly to ensure that all Libyan parties show the same responsibility for the fate of their country.

At the moment “there is no statehood in Libya,” the top diplomat lamented, claiming it was effectively annihilated by NATO back in 2011 and the Libyan people are still bearing the brunt of that “criminal, illegitimate venture.”

“If Libya could become 'a second Syria', I believe the Libyan people will benefit from this,” Lavrov said, in an apparent reference to a concerted effort by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to stem hostilities between the Syrian army and rebel forces in various parts of the country.

READ MORE: Moscow talks offer chance for peace in Libya’s post NATO-intervention bloody civil war

The top diplomat spoke shortly after Turkey and Russia enforced a ceasefire between the rebellious Libyan National Army (LNA) and the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli. They also brokered a major peace summit in Moscow this week, where it was suggested that hostilities stop without any preconditions.

But General Khalifa Haftar, chief of the LNA, refused to sign an agreement, claiming it didn’t include some of demands put forward by his organization.

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