France will resume its embassy in the war-torn Libyan capital Tripoli next Monday, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday, promising to support the new interim government.
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Macron met with Mohammed Menfi, head of Libya’s three-member presidency council, in Paris. Menfi was elected in February as part of a UN-hosted political process.
Menfi and Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah are tasked with guiding the Government of National Unity (GNU) until the national elections scheduled for December 24 this year.
Macron renewed its demand that foreign troops leave Libya immediately.
“There will be no peace ‘in the wider region’ if we cannot bring peace and stability to Libya, if we do not succeed in eradicating terrorist groups and all kinds of smugglers,” Macron said.
Foreign mercenaries and weapons have flowed into the country since Haftar began its offensive, with Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) serving as the putschist general’s best suppliers. According to the UN, there are currently 20,000 foreign forces and / or mercenaries left in Libya. France was another country that had supported the warlord during his offensive against Tripoli.
The Russian Wagner group, owned by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a figure close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is known as one of the main groups that sent mercenaries to fight in Libya.
Most foreign forces are concentrated around Sirte at the Jufra air base held by Haftar’s forces 500 kilometers south of Tripoli and further west in al-Watiya.
The French president said the European Union must stand shoulder to shoulder with the caretaker government to help push Libya towards peace.
Macron said France owed “a debt to Libya and the Libyans, which is in a decade of disorder.”
He said he would raise the issue of Libya at an EU summit on Thursday.
The new unitary government replaced the UN-recognized National Accord Government (GNA), which has been responsible for Tripoli and the western regions of Libya, as well as the competing eastern administration linked to the Putist general Khalifa Haftar.
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