Turkish FM holds phone call with Iraqi counterpart

Turkey's top diplomat held a series of telephone calls on Feb. 8 with counterparts from three countries. 

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu called his Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein to discuss bilateral relations and regional developments, according to Turkish sources.

He separately spoke with Tunisia's Othman Jerandi in a call that focused on recent development in Libya.

Libya's rival political groups agreed last Friday to form an interim unity government after five days of talks in Switzerland. Mohammad Younes Menfi was elected to head the presidency

Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh was elected prime minister. Mossa Al-Koni and Abdullah Hussein Al-Lafi were also voted to the three-man Presidency Council.

Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Based in the capital, Tripoli, and currently led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, the Government of National Accord was founded in 2015 under a U.N.-led agreement. But efforts for a long-term political settlement have failed due to a military offensive by militias loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar.

Al-Sarraj's internationally recognized government has been battling Haftar's militias since April 2019 in a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

Çavuşoğlu also talked to his Bulgarian counterpart, Ekaterina Zakharieva, but no information was disclosed regarding the contents of the call.