Date: Jan 17, 2020 Source: The Daily Star Merkel welcomes Haftar commitment to cease-fire  Madeline Chambers, Ulf Laessing and William Maclean| Reuters BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the willingness shown by Libyan military chief Khalifa Haftar to stick to a cease-fire in Libya and said a conference in Berlin Sunday must try to get a weapons embargo enforced again. “It is a good message that he is willing to keep to the cease-fire,” Merkel said at a news conference with the Croatian prime minister Thursday. “At the Libya conference we must above all see that the weapons embargo is adhered to again, which is basically agreed by the U.N. but unfortunately not kept to,” she said. Libyan military commander waging an offensive to capture the capital Tripoli is committed to a cease-fire, Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Thursday, in an apparent advance for efforts to end a near-decade of turmoil in the north African country. Maas added that commander Khalifa Haftar is also willing to attend a conference in Berlin Sunday aimed at addressing the conflict, the Foreign Ministry said, after the minister visited the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi. Haftar’s office was not immediately available for comment. Maas’ comment follows failed efforts by Russia and Turkey to persuade Haftar on a visit to Moscow this week to agree to a lasting ceasefire and halt the offensive on the Libyan capital. Haftar left Moscow without signing the proposal. The 9-month-old war over Tripoli is just the latest bout of chaos in Libya, an OPEC oil exporter that has become a hub for human traffickers to ship migrants by boats to Italy, while Islamist militants have exploited the widespread disorder. Germany Sunday hosts a summit bringing together foreign powers and the Libyan rival camps backed by them to try end the war over Tripoli and resume talks over a power-sharing deal. Maas flew to Haftar’s base in eastern Libya Thursday to discuss the Berlin summit. “Gen. Haftar has signaled his readiness to contribute to the success of the Libya conference in Berlin and is willing to participate. He has repeated his commitment to observe the existing cease-fire,” the ministry quoted Maas as saying after meetings in Benghazi. The country has been fractured and deeply unstable, with outside powers providing support to rival factions, since longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled in a 2011 uprising. Turkey backs Fayez al-Sarraj’s government, while Haftar has received support from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Russian mercenaries. Turkey is beginning to send troops into Libya in support of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, President Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday. “In order for the legitimate government in Libya to remain standing and for stability to be established, we are now sending our soldiers to this country,” Erdogan told an event in Ankara. Erdogan warned Tuesday that Turkey would not refrain from “teaching a lesson” to Haftar’s eastern Libyan forces if their attacks against the GNA continue. The talks in Moscow were the latest attempt to stabilize Libya, which has the largest proven reserves of oil in Africa. Turkey and Libya signed two agreements in November, one on military cooperation and another on maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean. Erdogan said Turkey will quickly start granting licenses for exploration and drilling in the region. “In the areas that remain between Turkey and Libya, it is now legally impossible for there to be exploration and drilling activities or a pipeline without the approval of both sides,” he said.