Rival Libyan leaders Haftar, Seraj to meet in Paris on July 25 - Hayat

Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar, a figurehead in the east of the country, and Fayez Seraj, the head of a U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on July 25, al-Hayat newspaper reported.

The two men held talks in Abu Dhabi in May, their first in more than a year and a half, over a U.N.-mediated deal that Western powers hope will end the factional fighting that has dominated Libya since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

Officials in Haftar's Libyan National Army and Seraj's government did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation.

France's foreign ministry and Macron's office said they had no information on the subject.

Amman-based channel 218 said according to their sources that Haftar and Seraj will meet in Paris at an invitation by Macron to complete the steps reached at the Abu Dhabi meeting.

According to the same sources, Haftar will travel to Paris on July 25 or 26.

Macron said in an interview with Ouest-France on July 13 that Paris was preparing "concrete" diplomatic initiatives on Libya in the coming weeks.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)