Libyan Parl. Speaker meets UN's Guterres to discuss latest escalations

CAIRO – 6 April 2019: Libya’s Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh has stressed the importance of holding presidential and parliamentarian elections soon to resolve the country's political conflict.

During his meeting with the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday in eastern Libya, Saleh discussed the country's latest developments, including the latest escalations by the Libyan National Army (LNA) to march towards the Capital, Tripoli.

Both sides also tackled the UN-backed Libyan National Conference, which was supposed to be held by April 14 in Ghadames city under the auspices of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

This meeting came amid wide international and national concerns regarding LNA’s latest escalations led by commander General Khalifa Haftar, who announced LNA’s moving towards Tripoli on a voice recording published online, Thursday.

A number of Arab and western countries expressed their deep concern, especially that several clashes broke near Tripoli since Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Egypt's Ministry of Foreign affairs called an all Libyan parties to practice self-restraint, and end the escalations.

The statement asserted Egypt’s firm stance on backing the UN’s efforts and commitment to the political solution as the only option to protect the integrity and unity of the Libyan territory and maintain protection of people in the war-ravaged country.