Russian, Egyptian Presidents hold talks on Libya

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi have stressed the importance of intensifying joint efforts to settle the Libyan crisis.

During a phone conversation on Saturday, Putin and al-Sisi noted the closeness of Russian and Egyptian approaches to the issue of settlement in Libya.

"They also touched on some international issues. The closeness of Russia’s and Egypt’s approaches to the political settlement in Libya was noted,” the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

On Wednesday, Libya’s Election Commission officially announced that the December 24 presidential and parliamentary elections were postponed, recommending the parliament to hold the first round of the presidential election in one month, on January 24, 2022, citing flaws in legislation as the cause of postponement.

The decision to hold the elections on December 24 became one of the main results of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum held in Switzerland at the beginning of the year with the participation of the country’s prominent representatives.

A new government and the Presidential Council were created in anticipation of the elections, however, a week prior to the scheduled date it became clear that the elections would not be held.

Libya has been beset by violence and chaos since the overthrow and killing of its long-serving ruler Muammar Gaddafi following a bombing campaign by the US-led NATO military alliance in 2011. The resulting chaos and factional divisions then escalated into a regional proxy war fueled by foreign powers, who poured weapons and mercenaries into the country.