Premier Giuseppe Conte has said Italy is hoping to contribute to a compromise between Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Haftar, whose Libyan National Army controls much of the east of the country, with the conference it is hosting in Palermo on Monday and Tuesday.
"I expect Haftar to attend," Conte said in an interview published in Monday's edition of La Stampa.
"His vision certainly does not match that of Prime Minister Sarraj.
"But Mandela observed that compromise is the art of leadership and you make compromises with your opponents, not your friends".
Conte said in his welcome message for the Palermo conference on Libya that "a
process of stabilisation has started in Libya".
He said Italy was holding the conference "for the Libyan people and because we want the Libyan people to be able to
decide its future in a democratic way".
Conte said that clashes in the north African country should stop and stabilisation should burgeon.
"Italy has promoted this conference because it wants to offer a contribution, within the framework of Nations, to the process of stabilisation of Libya," he said.
"There will be here present the main protagonists of the Libyan scene".
Conte said delegations from 30 countries and the main international bodies would be present.
"All this so that armed clashes may stop and Libya be launched into a process of stabilisation," he said.
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