A conditional ceasefire and elections were jointly agreed to by Libya’s Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and the divided country’s eastern commander Khalifa Haftar in Paris on July 25.

The rival leaders issued a joint statement following talks hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron . They said: “We commit to a ceasefire and to refrain from any use of armed force for any purpose that does not strictly constitute counter-terrorism”.

As reported by the Reuters news agency, al-Serraj and Haftar shook hands and smiled in front of the cameras.

“The cause of peace has made a lot of progress today,” Macron told reporters. “The Mediterranean [region] needs this peace.”

According to The Guardian noted that the French initiative has angered officials in Italy, which has previously taken the lead in efforts to bring peace to its former colony and has borne the brunt of migration across the Mediterranean from Libya.

Western governments are pushing a UN-backed political agreement to unify the country under which Sarraj’s Tripoli-based government was installed. But Haftar has refused to accept the government’s legitimacy.