Libya’s rival leaders leave Moscow, no peace deal signed

Libya's rival leaders have left Moscow without reaching agreement on a cease-fire deal, with Russia trying to downplay the talks' failure on Tuesday.

The deal was proposed by Russia and Turkey in an effort to bring an end to the north African country's long-running civil war.

Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libya's U.N.-recognized government in Tripoli, and his rival Khalifa Haftar came to Moscow on Monday for talks with top diplomats and military officials from Russia and Turkey. The talks lasted about seven hours, and Sarraj and Haftar didn't meet directly.

They considered a draft document spelling out details of a truce proposed jointly by Russia and Turkey that began Sunday. Sarraj signed the draft before departing, while Hifter requested more time to consider it and then left Moscow without signing the document.

In Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to teach Hifter "the lesson he deserves" if attacks on the Tripoli government continued.

Addressing his ruling party's legislators, Erdoğan praised Sarraj, saying he had displayed "an extremely constructive and compromising" stance during the talks in Moscow.

Erdoğan added that it was now up to Russian President Vladimir Putin to convince Haftar to agree to the cease-fire proposal.

"The coup-plotting Hifter first said 'yes' but then fled Moscow," Erdoğan said. "We have completed our duty, the rest is the duty of Mr. Putin and his team."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sought to downplay the talks' failure, saying that efforts to broker a peace deal will continue.

"We all work in the same direction and urge all the sides (of the conflict) in Libya to negotiate instead of trying to sort things out violently," Lavrov said Tuesday in Sri Lanka.

In the meantime, the United Nations urged the opposing governments "to continue to adhere to the announced cease-fire." In a statement Tuesday, the U.N. Support Mission in Libya asked both sides "to give the ongoing diplomatic efforts an opportunity to yield a more permanent cessation of hostilities."

Russia and Turkey welcomed Germany's plan to hold a Libya peace summit in Berlin later this month.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Moscow on Saturday to discuss Libya with Putin, and they had a phone call Monday in which the Russian leader briefed her on the results of the talks in Moscow.

The truce brokered by Russia and Turkey marked the first break in fighting in months. There were immediate reports of violations by both sides, however, raising concerns it might not hold.

Libya plunged into turmoil after the 2011 civil war that ousted and killed long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Various foreign players back Libya's rival governments, and they have recently been stepping up their involvement in the oil-rich nation's conflict.

Haftar is supported by France, Russia and key Arab countries, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Turkey, Italy and Qatar support the Tripoli government, which has faced an offensive by Haftar's forces that have besieged the capital since last April.

Russia has maintained contacts with both conflicting parties in Libya, but the government in Tripoli has recently charged that Russian military contractors were fighting alongside Haftar.

The joint Russia-Turkey mediation effort in Libya follows the deals they struck to coordinate their action in Syria, where Moscow has shored up Assad regime and Ankara has backed the Syrian rebels.