Gentiloni and Pinotti said progress had been made in Libya in the past nine months, although the seizure over the weekend of oil ports by forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar damaged efforts to stabilise the country.
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“The entire oil crescent region is now under our control”, Muqarief told AFP.
On Sunday, Haftar’s forces took Al-Sidra and Ras Lanuf ports before attacking Zuwaytina to the east.
Libya has been the scene of increasing violence since 2011, when long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled from power after a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military intervention.
Control of Brega will be a fresh blow to the unity government which has been struggling to assert its authority.
Haftar, 73, who sees himself as Libya’s saviour after battling conservative armed groups out of most of second city Benghazi in the east, backs the Bayda-based parliament which has refused to grant the GNA a vote of confidence. Some members of the United Nations -backed Government of National Accord (GNA) has criticised Haftar’s seizure of the ports, and Western powers condemned the move, saying they were ready to prevent any exports attempted outside the GNA’s authority.
The conflict has crippled Libya’s once vibrant oil sector, denying it an estimated $100 billion in revenues over the past three years. The United States France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain have called upon forces loyal to a Libyan general to withdraw from three eastern oil terminals seized earlier this week, in a statement Monday, Sept. 13, 2016.
The release also mentioned that Mr. Kobler joined the Presidency Council’s calls for a comprehensive national consensus and expressed his support for consultations that would lead to the formation of a new Government of National Accord.
“We call on all parties to undertake an immediate ceasefire and to refrain from any further hostilities”, they said in a joint statement.
The NOC said on Tuesday it would “begin work immediately to restart exports” and that all exports must conform with the United Nations resolution.
For his part, the head of the rival government, Abdullah al-Thani, said from Bayda that his administration “will work on the oil ports resuming work as soon as possible so as to guarantee all Libyans a decent life”.
But the statement from the governmental institution did not explain how it could export oil from ports controlled by hostile forces.
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Haftar’s forces have said they would hand over management of the ports to the National Oil Corporation to resume oil exports.
