(Bloomberg) -- Chances of a cease-fire in Libya faded further as both strongman Khalifa Haftar and Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj Wednesday rejected calls to stop fighting.
General Haftar ignored requests at a meeting in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron to agree to a cease-fire, arguing that the offensive he launched on Tripoli last month must continue as long as militias control much of the capital. Sarraj said during a meeting with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi in Tunis that the fight will go on until Haftar’s forces withdraw, according to a statement on his government’s Facebook page.
France has a complicated relationship with Haftar, having provided him military assistance to sweep Islamist militants out of the east and south of the country, while officially supporting a United Nations process that backs Sarraj’s Tripoli-based government. Macron met with Sarraj in Paris on May 8.
French officials said Haftar spent much of a 1:20-hour-long meeting justifying the offensive as necessary to maintain order in the oil-rich North African nation. He presented his enemy as being the militias, not Sarraj, but expressed disappointment that Sarraj was unable to control them.
Haftar did agree that a political process would be eventually necessary, but only once the militias had been disbanded, the French officials said. Haftar similarly rejected calls for a cease-fire by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at a May 16 meeting in Rome.
Libya descended into chaos after longtime leader Moammar Qaddafi was removed and killed in a 2011 uprising militarily backed by France. It’s been ruled since 2014 by two feuding administrations in Tripoli and the east as well as dozens of regional militias.
The turmoil has provided fertile ground for the rise of militants including Islamic State, and Haftar’s declared reason for consolidating power is a self-proclaimed war on terrorism.
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