Turkish envoy in Tripoli for talks with Libya officials

By Walid Abdullah

TRIPOLI, Libya (AA) - Turkey’s special envoy to Libya, Emrullah Isler, arrived in Tripoli on Monday for talks with Libyan officials.

During his visit, Isler is due to meet with Fayez al-Sarraj, head of Libya’s UN-backed unity government, and Abdulrahman al-Suweihli, president of Libya’s Supreme State Council.

The Turkish envoy’s visit comes amid ongoing talks in Tunisia between Libya’s rival political camps aimed at resolving the country’s years-long political crisis.

It also comes shortly after UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame unveiled a roadmap for resolving the conflict on the sidelines of last month’s UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

Salame’s plan calls for amending the 2015 Skhirat agreement between Libya’s rival political camps; holding a national dialogue between the country’s disparate political factions; and holding a referendum on the adoption of a new constitution.

Signed in the Moroccan city of Skhirat, the 2015 agreement resulted in the establishment of Libya’s current UN-backed unity government.

One year after it was signed, however, Libya’s Tobruk-based parliament -- a staunch rival of the Tripoli government -- disowned the agreement, demanding that it be reformulated.

Libya has remained in a state of turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising led to the ouster and death of longtime President Muammar Gaddafi.

In the six years since, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government -- one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli -- and a plethora of heavily-armed militia groups.