Turkish and Russian presidents have urged for a cease-fire in Libya by Jan. 12 midnight, according to Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday.
“Today, our President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and Russian Federation President [Vladimir] Putin are calling for cease-fire in Libya by Jan. 12 midnight,” Cavusoglu told a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Istanbul.
Cavusoglu said Erdogan and Putin held a bilateral meeting following the launch of TurkStream natural gas pipeline project in the city, which the two leaders as well as the president of Serbia and prime minister of Bulgaria attended.
The TurkStream project consists of two lines with a total capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year. The first line will carry 15.75 bcm of Russian gas to Turkish consumers every year, and the second line will carry another 15.75 bcm from Russia to Europe via Turkey.
Noting that the Turkish and Russian presidents discussed bilateral and regional issues, Cavusoglu said: “We have been especially working with our Russian partners to achieve a cease-fire in Libya.”
He stressed that Turkey will continue efforts to work both with Russia and all the parties in Libya to establish lasting peace in the country.
“These efforts actually contribute to the successful completion of Berlin [peace] process and to bring peace and tranquility to Libya,” he added.
Since September, several high-level meetings were held in Berlin to put an end to the Libyan conflict, with the participation of France, Italy, Germany, and the U.K. The negotiations are known as the Berlin peace process.
Lavrov in his comments reiterated the call for truce.
"I would like to emphasize the call that Presidents Putin and Erdogan addressed to all the Libyan sides -- to immediately stop fighting, starting from 00:00 on Jan. 12," he said.
Since the ouster of late leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, two seats of power have emerged in Libya: one in eastern Libya supported mainly by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and the other in Tripoli, which enjoys UN and international recognition.
Both leaders also discussed the situation in the Persian Gulf after top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed in a U.S. airstrike last week and called for resolving rising tensions peacefully.
"And in connection with the events of recent days the president firmly spoke out for the solution of all problems in the Persian Gulf zone and in the region as a whole exclusively by peaceful methods in accordance with the norms of international law," Russia's top diplomat said.
*Writing by Sena Guler
* Elena Teslova contributed to this report from Moscow
