By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 28 July 2017:
The head of the Presidency Council (PC), Faiez Serraj, is to travel to Algiers tomorrow to brief the Algerian government on his Paris meeting with Khalifa Hafter, it is reported in the Algerian capital. According to sources there, he will have talks with both foreign minister Abdelkader Messahel and prime minister Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The choice of Algiers as one of Serraj’s second destination to discuss the Paris meeting (he flew first to Rome to try and calm ruffled Italian feathers about it) indicates its importance in PC eyes in helping resolve the conflict. Messahel, who was appointed Algerian foreign minister in May, previously held his country’s brief on Libya as Algeria’s minister for Maghreb, African and Arab affairs and had been working for some considerable time to try and find a solution to the Libyan crisis.
Serraj was last in Algiers 12 weeks ago when he discussed the Libyan situation with Messahel and the former Algerian premier Abdelmalek Sellal.
Although there has been a degree of rivalry between Algiers and Cairo over Libya, with the PC closer to the former and the eastern triumvirate or Hafter, interim prime minister Abdullah Thinni and House of Representatives president Ageela Saleh to the latter, both countries have been collaborating more determinedly, along with Tunisia, in recent months.
Moreover, in an interview with France 24 two days ago Hafter himself recognised the role that the Algerian authorities, along with those in Egypt, had played making the Paris meeting possible.
“We have great respect for Algeria, it is among the few Arab countries that have called for a peaceful solution to the Libyan conflict and we also welcome the efforts made to establish a dialogue between the two parties,” he was quoted as saying.
