German Chancellor Angela Merkel invited leaders from 12 countries as well as the UN, the EU, the African Union and the Arab League to the summit at the chancellery in Berlin. Germany’s months-long diplomatic drive seeks to bolster efforts to stop the fighting in Libya by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame. Among those taking part were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Libya’s rival leaders: Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj and General Khalifa Haftar. A truce brokered earlier this month by Russia and Turkey marked the first break in fighting in months, but the ceasefire has seen repeated violations. “The conference is important, but it is a beginning, the start of a process,” spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said.
