Turkey and Russia to hold high-level meeting on Libya on Sunday

The foreign and defence ministers of Turkey and Russia will hold a summit in Istanbul tomorrow to analyse the current situation of the civil war in Libya, where the two countries are supporting opposing sides, reports CNNTürk. The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, and the head of Defence, Sergei Shoigou, will meet their Turkish counterparts, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Hulusi Akar.

According to CNNTürk, which does not cite sources, a meeting has already taken place on Saturday at a technical level to prepare for tomorrow's meeting, in which the main topic will be the situation in Libya.

Turkey, which supports in Libya the National Accord Government (NAG), recognized by the UN, has insisted in the last days in rejecting the ceasefire proposed by Egypt recently. Cavusoglu himself has said that this offer of a truce is "stillborn" and is just an "attempt to gain time" and to "save Marshal Khalifa Haftar", backed by Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Moscow has indeed shown its support for the Egyptian plan.

"The solution in Libya will be political, not military. Haftar and the system of alliances he has created do not serve peace in Libya," said Turkish Presidency spokesman Ibrahim Kalin today on the social network Twitter.

Turkey's support for the ANG, with military advisors and mercenaries, has helped reverse the course of the war in Libya and stopped Haftar's advance on Tripoli, where the UN-recognised executive is based.