World leaders agreed on a final joint statement the Libya conference in Berlin, German chancellor Angela Merkel announced during a press conference on Sunday, adding that all participants pledge to uphold weapons embargo in country’s war and agree on a political solution to the conflict.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said that countries with interests in Libya’s long-running conflict have agreed that they should respect a much-violated arms embargo, which should be better controlled than it has been to date.

The participants at Sunday’s summit in Berlin agreed to provide no further military support to the warring parties while a cease-fire lasts, Merkel said after about four hours of talks at the chancellery in Berlin.

“We agreed on a comprehensive plan forward,” Merkel said. “I can say that all participants worked really constructively together”, she said before adding: “We all agree that we should respect the arms embargo and that the arms embargo should be controlled more strongly than it has been in the past.”

“All participants committed to refrain from interferences in the armed conflict or internal affairs in Libya,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

‘No military solution’

“I cannot stress enough the summit’s conclusion that there is no military solution to the conflict in Libya,” Guterres told reporters in Berlin.

Merkel and Guterres presented details of the summit’s statement, as Germany and the United Nations, the conference’s hosts, had been struggling to draw military commander Khalifa Haftar back into diplomacy after he quit talks and more than half of Libya’s oil output was shut in areas he controls.

Guterres expressed his worry that several oil ports and an oilfield had been shut down in Libya, an escalation that threatened to strangle the country’s finances and overshadowed the Berlin summit.

Among those attending were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Libya’s two main rival leaders, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and General Khalifa Haftar, also came to Berlin. Merkel and her foreign minister met both men individually at the chancellery before the summit began. They weren’t in a group photo at the beginning of the event, and further details of their participation were not immediately available.

German foreign Minister Heiko Maas, speaking at a news conference with Merkel, said a follow-up committee on Libya would be set up which would spell out further steps needed to reach a ceasefire.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP and AP)