Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal will participate in the upcoming talks for stability in Libya, a statement by the ministry said Wednesday.
Önal will travel to Tripoli on Oct. 21 to discuss developments regarding the political process and the restoration of permanent stability and peace in the war-torn country.
A United Nations-brokered road map had set both parliamentary and presidential elections for Dec. 24 but parliamentary elections have been postponed to January. The elections have been seen by many as a step forward to end the country’s divisions. There has been pressure from international governments, including the United States, on Libyan stakeholders to hold elections as scheduled.
Elections are supposed to help unify the country after years of conflict and division, but disputes over their legal and constitutional basis have laid bare the extent of the split between the country's east and west.
Libya has endured a decade of conflict since the 2011 fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising, which unleashed a complex civil war that dragged in multiple foreign powers.
A landmark cease-fire between eastern and western camps last year, following a yearlong unsuccessful campaign by putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar to seize Tripoli, paved the way for the U.N.-backed peace process and sparked hope for stability.
The Tripoli-based unity government of interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah took office in March with a mandate to lead the country to the December ballots.
But negotiations over electoral laws have placed growing doubts over the process.
On Nov. 27, 2019, the internationally recognized Libyan government signed a security cooperation agreement and demarcation of a maritime border with Turkey.
The Turkey-Libya deal on maritime delimitation has provided a legal framework to prevent any fait accompli by regional states. Accordingly, the attempts by the Greek government to appropriate huge parts of Libya's continental shelf, since a political crisis hit the North African country in 2011, have been averted.
The agreement also confirmed that Turkey and Libya are maritime neighbors. The delimitation starts from Turkey’s southwestern coast of Fethiye-Marmaris-Kaş and extends to the Derna-Tobruk-Bordia coastline of Libya.
Furthermore, within the scope of the security agreement, Turkey has started providing military training to Libyan soldiers.
Turkey had backed the internationally recognized Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), against the eastern-based forces of putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar, which was supported by Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France.
Earlier this year, the two countries reiterated their commitment to enhancing bilateral ties and the maritime deal while President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan underlined that Ankara prioritizes Libya's sovereignty, territorial integrity and political unity.
