Libyan strongman Haftar must end ‘hostile’ attitude: Erdogan

Libya’s military strongman Khalifa Haftar must drop his “hostile attitude” so that the conflict in the war-torn nation can be resolved, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said ahead of crunch talks in Berlin on Sunday.

“For a political solution and the implementation of other phases of a solution, Haftar’s hostile attitude should come to an end,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

The comments reportedly came during a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin shortly before the start of an international summit on Libya.

Turkey and Russia are on opposed sides in the deadly conflict, with Erdogan backing the UN-recognised government of Fayez al-Sarraj, while Putin supports rival Haftar’s troops.

The Berlin summit, attended by a slew of world leaders including the two main rivals in the Libyan crisis, hopes to extract a pledge for a lasting ceasefire and an end to foreign interference.

Ankara and Moscow brokered a fragile Libyan ceasefire earlier this month but both warring sides have accused each other of repeated violations since then.

“But we have not lost hope that the dialogue will be continued and we sincerely aspire to the resolution of the conflict,” Putin said in Berlin.

The Libyan conflict is of great concern to Europe especially, he added, because Libya’s wide-open doors have seen “an influx of refugees from the Middle East and Africa to Europe”.