Libyan eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, speaking on Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron, ruled out a ceasefire in the war-torn country and said he wanted to rid Tripoli of militias that had "infested" the UN-backed government, a French presidential official said. Macron and French officials have for weeks repeated their official support for the GNA and have called for an unconditional ceasefire. "The distrust we see between the Libyan actors is stronger than ever today," the French official said after the meeting between Macron and Haftar in Paris. "When the question of the ceasefire was put on the table, Haftar's reaction to this was to ask: 'negotiate with whom for a ceasefire today? "He [Haftar] considers that the GNA is completely infested by militias and it is not for him to negotiate with representatives of these militias," the French official said.

Source: Libya Today May 23, 2019 11:22 UTC