Rome conference tasked to avert threat of Libya’s collapse - Russian diplomat

ROME, December 13. /TASS/. The international meeting in Rome on Libyan settlement was taked to avert a real threat of Libya’s collapse, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Sunday. "The country is actually split, with two government, two parliaments and disabled state institutions. There is a real threat of a catastrophe in the country of its ceasing to exist as a united independent state," he said. "In this context, this meeting was organized at the United States’ and Italy’s initiative. The meeting was crowned by a document." According to the Russian diplomat, special attention at the conference was focused on the threat of terrorism in the context of expanding presence of the Islamic State terrorist group in that country. "The document [adopted at the conference] points to the necessity of the consolidation of efforts of both the Libyan parties and the international community in countering the terrorist threat that is taking growing shapes in Libya," he said. The one-day meeting was attended by top diplomats from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Great Britain, China, Russia, the United States and France), Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Spain, and European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and United Nations special envoy on Libya Martiv Kobler. The meeting was organized at Italy’s initiative with support from the United States. Read more