Moscow welcomes Libya’s fighting factions
Russia continues to boost its image as a peacemaker in the Middle East by engaging both of Libya’s warring parties.
As the United Nations is looking to rally broad international support for a new peace plan for Libya, outside actors that came to play a bigger role in breaking the Libyan stalemate are making their own moves.
By chance or providence, representatives of the two opposing parties in Libya both visited Moscow the week of Sept. 10: Ahmed Maiteeq, the deputy prime minister of the so-called unity government — the Government of National Accord (GNA) — and Ahmed al-Mismari, the spokesman for the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the head of the “eastern” government in Tobruk.
Later in the week, new UN Special Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame also visited the Russian capital. His visit did not receive much coverage in the press; it was merely announced that Salame had met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and that the men agreed to cooperate with Russian authorities on Libya.
It was a different matter with the high-profile visits of the two Libyan representatives.
