PARIS — Libyan commander Khalifa Hifter said in a meeting on Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron that he cannot work toward a cease-fire because he has no one with whom to negotiate. During a more than hour-long closed door meeting, Macron asked Hifter to work toward a cease-fire and a return to the political process, according to a statement from Macron's office. When the question of a cease-fire is put on the table, "the reaction of ... Hifter is 'with whom can I negotiate a ceasefire today?'" The closed-door meeting came two weeks after Macron hosted Libya's struggling U.N.-backed prime minister, who has denounced Hifter's offensive as an attempted coup. "Sarraj is the legitimate prime minister of Libya and Hifter ... is an essential actor in the Libyan crisis," the official said.

Source: Libya Today May 22, 2019 10:35 UTC