Libya's PM, eastern commander set to commit to ceasefire, election: French draft

Celle-Saint-Cloud: The French presidency hopes Libya`s Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and the divided country`s eastern commander Khalifa Haftar will on Tuesday agree on a conditional ceasefire and to work towards elections, according to draft statement it mistakenly sent.

The two men are due to meet President Emmanuel Macron in the afternoon.

"We commit to a ceasefire and to refrain from any use of armed force for any purpose that does not strictly constitute counter-terrorism," they said in the draft statement, which Macron`s Elysee office later said was a working document that had been emailed prematurely.
Serraj and Haftar are set to commit to working for elections as soon as possible from July 25 under U.N. supervision, the document added.

The draft statement was the result of negotiations between emissaries of the Libyan rivals and French officials but its content could still be subject to some changes, a source at the Elysee said.

The French initiative has angered officials in Italy, which has previously taken the lead in efforts to bring peace to its former North African colony and borne the brunt of successive waves of African migrants that have crossed the Mediterranean from Libya.

Past attempts at peace deals in oil-producing Libya were often scuttled by internal divisions among the myriad of competing armed groups that emerged in chaos and fighting since rebels toppled strongman Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Western governments are pushing a U.N.-backed political agreement to unify the country under which Serraj`s Tripoli-based government was installed. 

But Haftar, who this month declared victory over rival armed groups in the battle for Libya`s second city Benghazi, has refused to accept the government`s legitimacy.