By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 24 August 2017:
British foreign secretary Boris Johnson has urged Khalifa Hafter to stick by the Paris agreement he made with Presidency Council (PC) head Faeiz Serraj, to enforce a ceasefire and work with UNSMIL towards agreed amendments to the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA).
Johnson was wrapping up his two-day Libya visit by meeting the armed forces commander-in-chief in Benghazi. It was the first time a British government minister has been in the city since 2011. Yesterday he was in Tripoli before moving on to Misrata.
Johnson insisted that Hafter had a role to play in the political process. A stable and secure Libya could, he said, deal with the threat of terrorism and tackle the challenges of migration.
“The Libyan people need a stable state that can meet their fundamental economic and security needs” he said, “That requires all sides to compromise and work together. Only a united Libya can defeat the terrorists and smuggling networks who are exploiting the instability”
Johnson said that the UK would be working intensively ahead of the UN General Assembly’s week-long September meeting to galvanise international support for a renewed effort to break the political deadlock. Britain was also backing the new UNSMIL chief Ghassan Salamé’s efforts to revitalise talks on amendments to the LPA .
The British politician did not see House of Representatives (HoR) president Ageela Saleh during his visit to the east. UK diplomats explained that the two men had met this May in Tobruk when Johnson paid his first visit to Libya.
