Moscow says working hard to stop bloodshed in Libya

Russia is working hard to stop bloodshed in Libya, Russian authorities said Monday.

"Russia, of course, uses all opportunities it has to urge all parties to abandon any actions that could provoke bloody battles and civilian deaths," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We are working with the UN (United Nations), with the special representative of the UN Secretary General for Libya, Ghassan Salame," Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian deputy foreign minister and the special envoy of President Vladimir Putin for Middle East and Africa, was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.

He added that Russian officials have held phone conversations with all political forces of Libya. On Friday, he talked over the phone with Khalifa Haftar, head of the eastern-based army, and on Saturday with the Libyan Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmed Maiteeq.

Moscow has voiced its concerns to the United Nations Security Council over the recent situation in Libya and urged all parties to seek a political solution for emerging problems, Bogdanov said, adding that more efforts are still needed to combat terrorists.

The eastern-based military forces led by Haftar on Thursday launched a military operation attempting to take over western Libya, the capital Tripoli in particular, where the UN-backed government is based. The government forces there have fought back.

The Haftar-led army is allied with Libya's eastern-based government. The politically divided North African country has been struggling to make a democratic transition amid clashes and chaos since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi's government in 2011.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)