Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Tuesday, received Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aqila Saleh, and member of the Presidential Council, Abdullah Al-Lafi, in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

Al-Lafi stated in a statement through his official Facebook account that the meeting, which also included the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament, Mustafa Şentop, dealt with the two countries’ relations and political developments in Libya.

The views at the meeting converged on preserving the unity of the Libyan territory and to expedite the conduct of the electoral process, through the necessary and agreed-upon legislation through one strong government, he explained.

Al-Lafi also added that the meeting stressed the need to exclude a military solution, and to cease all escalations that hinder the building of a civil and democratic state, according to the statement.

Aqila Saleh's visit to Turkey is the first of its kind, since Khalifa Haftar's takeover of the eastern region, announcing the severing of relations with Turkey and the start of what they described as “jihad against the Turkish occupation”.