Algeria, Turkey hold talks on Libya: Source

ALGIERS

Members of the Libyan pro-government forces, backed by locals, gather on a tank outside the Central Bank, near Benghazi port, January 21, 2015. REUTERS Photo

Turkey held talks with Algeria on the crisis in Libya as part of efforts made by Algeria to convince rival parties in the restive Arab country to sit down at the negotiation table, according to an Algerian diplomatic source.

The source told Anadolu Agency that Algeria’s deputy foreign minister for African affairs, Abdel-Qadir Mesahel, met in Algiers on Jan. 24 with a Turkish delegation led by Turkish lawmaker and envoy to Libya, Emrullah İşler, to discuss the crisis in Libya.

“Both sides held a closed-door meeting at the Algerian Foreign Ministry and focused on months-long Algerian efforts to bring Libya’s rivals together in coordination with the United Nations mission in Libya,” the source added on condition of anonymity.

He added that the meeting also dwelt on Turkey’s position on the crisis in Libya.

On Nov. 19, 2014, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan outlined their opposition to foreign intervention in Libya during a visit by the latter to Algiers.

Libya has been dogged by political instability since Moammar Gadhafi’s 2011 ouster and death.

In the more than three years since, rival militias have frequently clashed in Libya’s main cities, including capital Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi. The central government, meanwhile, has remained largely absent from the scene.

The sharp political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, each of which has its own institutions.

Two assemblies currently vie for legislative authority: a newly-elected House of Representatives, which convenes in the eastern city of Tobruk; and a General National Congress, which – though its mandate expired last summer – continues to convene in Tripoli.

The two parliaments support two different governments respectively headquartered in the two cities.
The U.N. recently sponsored a dialogue initiative in Geneva in an effort to reconcile the fractious country’s warring rivals.