UN chief flies to eastern Libya to meet Haftar as fighters close in on capital

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was flying to eastern Libya on Friday to meet commander Khalifa Haftar, whose forces are advancing on the capital Tripoli now held by an internationally recognized government.

Troops allied to the Tripoli government moved more vehicles from the western city of Misrata to Tripoli to defend the capital against Haftar’s forces, who are allied to a parallel administraion in the east, residents said.

The advances by the Benghazi-based eastern forces marked a dramatic escalation of a power struggle that has dragged on in Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.

They also surprised the United Nations, whose Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had been in Tripoli this week to help organize a reconciliation national conference later this month.

Guterres, who spent the night in the heavily fortified UN compound in a Tripoli suburb, will also go to Tobruk, another eastern city, to meet lawmakers of the House of Representatives, also allied to Haftar.

“My aim remains the same: avoid a military confrontation. I reiterate that there is no military solution for the Libyan crisis, only a political one,” Guterres wrote on Twitter.