González Laya visits Libya to support the ceasefire for a peace "without winners or losers".
"There can be no winners, no losers", and no "foreign interference", said Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya on her visit to Tripoli. Mrs González Laya began her official trip to Libya with a meeting with the president of the High Council of State, Khaled al-Mashri, one of the key players in the negotiations that ended with the announcement of the ceasefire.
From Tunisia, González Laya landed in Tripoli, where she was received by the foreign minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Mohamed Tamer Siala, with whom she had a brief meeting at the airport. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs is meeting this Monday with the leader of the GNA, Fayez Sarraj, and the President of the Tobruk-based Parliament, Aquila Saleh, supported by Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
"This opportunity to stabilise the situation in Libya cannot be missed. The solution is a solution between Libyans, not a solution from outside. The Libyans have to build it," González Laya told the media. Furthermore, the foreign minister stressed the importance of rejecting "foreign interference, responses and solutions that come from outside". The aim of this trip is to convey Spain's support for the ceasefire between the Government of National Accord (GNA), supported by the United Nations.
This weekend, Mrs González Laya visited Tunisia, where she expressed his full commitment to the Tunisian government following the attack in the city of Susa, which resulted in the death of a policeman. The head of Spanish diplomacy called for work on peace and stability in the Mediterranean and the Sahel, "an area that is currently fragile", said González Laya.
At the beginning of July the Spanish government appointed Javier García-Larrache as the new ambassador to Libya, although the diplomat will reside in Tunisia like his predecessors in view of the closure of the embassy in Tripoli in 2014.
González Laya's tour will end this Tuesday in Milan, where she will meet her Italian counterpart, Luigi Di Maio, to review the bilateral relationship between Spain and Italy and the situation in Libya.
On 21 August Sarraj announced the cessation of all hostilities after reaching a ceasefire agreement with Saleh. Although Haftar did not speak out personally, he was welcomed by the factions that support the marshal.
In the same announcement, Sarraj called parliamentary and presidential elections for next March. This ceasefire was applauded by the international community. Both Russia, who supports Haftar, and the European Union, which has shown its support for the GNA, welcomed the decision. Last week, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, visited Tripoli and met with Sarraj to show his support for the peace process in the country.
