Berlin Conference: All sides agree on ceasefire & to uphold arms embargo in Libya

After a marathon of consultations and four hours of agony, the Berlin Conference was concluded.

Participants agreed on a ceasefire as well as respecting the arms embargo and ending military intervention in Libya, which has suffered a decade-long civil war.

The decision annuls Turkey’s plans for military support from the internationally recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the two sides in the Libyan conflict had failed to launch a serious dialogue.

“We have decided that there can be no military solution. We have agreed to come up with a plan to support peace in the region”, the German chancellor said.

“We have agreed to implement the arms embargo. The participants pledged to avoid armed conflict and interference in Libya’s internal affairs”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

The President of the EU Commission, in a post on Twitter, said she would talk to the UN Secretary-General on the next moves in Libya on the basis of decisions made at the conference.

“Italy is ready to take the lead in monitoring the ceasefire agreement in Libya”, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said after the peace conference ended.

French President Emmanuel Macron has earlier called for a “halt” in the dispatch of pro-Turkish rebel fighters to Tripoli to support the UN-recognized local government.

The UK could send “people and experts” to oversee the ceasefire in Libya, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on the sidelines of the Conference.

Greece did not participate in the conference, which led the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to state that he would veto any decision taken in the Berlin Conference if there is no the cancellation of the Ankara-Tripolis maritime memorandum.

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