Interior Minister, Fathi Bashagha

The Libyan Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha met with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul and discussed the challenges the Presidential Council's government is facing amid the ongoing offensive led by Khalifa Haftar's forces against Tripoli.

According to sources from the Interior Ministry, Bashagha met also with Turkish and Qatari Defense Ministers.

Bashagha arrived in Istanbul coming from Rome, where he met with a US delegation and discussed the latest military and political developments in Libya.

Libya's politics had been busy over the last weeks after Turkey and Russia got involved in the crisis with Putin and Erdogan announcing two days ago a proposal for a ceasefire on January 12.

Meanwhile, the Libyan Foreign Ministry reported Turkish and Russian Foreign Ministers as telling their Libyan counterpart Mohammed Sayala on the phone that their countries support the political process and an end to the offensive against Tripoli.

Sayala informed the two ministers that the Presidential Council's government welcomes the Turkish-Russian initiative for a ceasefire in Libya as per the political agreement.