Tripoli

Turkey and Russia will hold two-day talks on Syria and Libya, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has an-nounced, amid ongoing ceasefires in both theaters.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın and National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chair Hakan Fidan visited Libya on June 17 for official meetings.

The delegation met with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.

Turkey angrily accused France on Tuesday of exacerbating the crisis in Libya and violating UN and NATO decisions by supporting the forces of Khalifa Haftar against the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the conflict in Libya and the situation in the eastern Mediterranean in a video call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Merkel's spokesman said in a statement on June 16.

France wants talks with NATO allies to discuss Turkey's increasingly "aggressive" and "unacceptable" role in Libya, a French presidential official said on Monday, underscoring increased tensions between Ankara and Paris.

Turkey and Libya's internationally recognized government are discussing possible Turkish use of two military bases in the North African country, a Turkish source said on Monday, with a view to a lasting Turkish presence in the south Mediterranean.

The Turkish army's training and guidance contributed "very significantly" to the recent military success of Libya's U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), Turkey's defense minister has said.

Libya's foreign minister on June 14 urged the U.N. Security Council to refer mass graves discovered in the city of Tarhuna to the International Criminal Court.

According to a written statement published by the Foreign Ministry on its Facebook account, Mohamed Siala sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council.

A planned visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to Turkey for June 14 was postponed after a phone conversation between the foreign ministers on June 14, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

Hundreds protested for a second night to decry Lebanese authorities' handling of a deepening economic crisis, despite the government pledging on June 12 to inject dollars into the market to bolster the sagging currency.

Near a protest square in central Beirut, around 200 young men drove in on mopeds and defaced shop fronts, setting fire to several stores, an AFP correspondent said.