17-27 May: Serraj Meets Trump in Riyadh

May 23, 2017 | International actors

Press reports indicate that on 21 May, Government of National Accord (GNA) prime minister Fayez al-Serraj met briefly with US President Donald Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during the American Islamic States Summit. Although arranging the meeting was allegedly quite difficult due to Trump’s reluctance to engage in the conflict in Libya, the GNA’s media office reports that Trump reaffirmed US support for Libya’s fight against terrorism and ISIS in the meeting.

In response to the Brak attack, the Ambassadors to Libya of the People’s Republic of China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America issued a joint statement condemning the use of violence as a means to change the situation on the ground, as well as expressing concern at the reports of criminal acts such as ‘massacre’ style executions of combatants and civilians and urged all parties to exercise restraint and peaceful methods to resolve conflict.

Outraged by the level of violence, UN Special Envoy to Libya Martin Kobler warned that summary executions and targeting civilians constitutes a war crime, liable for prosecuted by the International Criminal court (ICC). He encouraged all parties to condemn this attack and to try and move forward with peaceful political solutions.