A country should not change leadership ahead of elections, Libya's eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar allegedly told its United Nations backed premier Fayez al-Sarraj on Tuesday, saying: "You don't change horses while crossing a river."
Haftar made the remark to Sarraj during a meeting in Palermo on Tuesday chaired by Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte, which top officials from Europe, Russia, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt also attended.
An accord reached at Tuesday's meeting was "a very important historical step," Adnkronos learned from sources.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of an international conference in Palermo on stabilising Libya which aimed to support United Nations efforts to reunite the conflict-wracked country's institutions and set a new timetable for elections with a process beginning in the Spring.