The United Nations said that parties to the Libyan conflict are involved in the JMC talks. However, this did not stop the accelerated field developments, as reinforcements from the Libyan Al-Wefaq government arrived in the vicinity of the city of Sirte in preparation for storming it.
Yesterday, Wednesday, the United Nations Support Mission in Libya said that the delegations of the government of Al-Wefaq and the forces of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar were fully involved, through video technology, in the third round of the JMC talks (5 + 5).
The mission stated in a statement that it had held two separate meetings with the two delegations, noting that they were fruitful, and that it had allowed them to receive the parties' comments on the draft ceasefire agreement reached last February in Geneva.
The mission expressed concern about reports of escalation and mobilization in and around the city of Sirte, noting that it had verified the killing of at least 19 civilians, including women and children, between the fifth and eighth of this month in at least three locations outside Sirte.
Officials in the internationally recognized Libyan Al-Wefaq government confirmed that there was no return to political talks before controlling the city of Sirte (450 km east of Tripoli) and the Jafra base in the south, in which the leadership of the American forces in Africa recently said that Russian planes landed to support Haftar's forces.
Sirte West reinforcements
The Al-Wefaq government forces continue to advance east and south after in the past days they managed to end the presence of Haftar forces on the borders of the capital, Tripoli, and in the city of Tarhuna.
Al-Jazeera correspondent quoted a military source in the Libyan Al-Wefaq government forces as confirming that military reinforcements had reached the fighting axes west of the coastal city of Sirte in central Libya.
The source added that the princes of the central military regions, Tripoli and the West, agreed to support fighting axes west of Sirte to launch an attack on Haftar forces with various types of weapons.
The warplanes and helicopters of the Haftar forces had flown intensively today in the atmosphere of Abu Qurain area east of the city of Misurata, without striking the locations of the reconciliation forces in the area.
Before that, Al-Wefaq forces bombed military targets inside Sirte, and local sources reported that dozens of Haftar 604 battalion, affiliated to Haftar, had been killed by missile strikes.
Ahmed Al-Mesmari, a spokesman for Hifter's forces, announced that their forces would continue operations until the Egyptian initiative, which the Libyan Accord government had ignored, was accepted.
Bodies in Tarhuna
Meanwhile, the Libyan National Commission for the Identification of Missing Persons has announced that 15 bodies out of a hundred have been reported, following the retrieval of bodies from mass graves in the city of Tarhuna, southeast of Tripoli.
A local source in Tarhuna told Al-Jazeera correspondent that most of the dead were city residents opposed to the war on Tripoli.
The source accused the Muhammad al-Kani militia, one of the militia leaders of the retired Major General Khalifa Hifter in Tarhuna, of displacing a number of the city's residents and demolishing their homes during the control of these militias.
International mobility
Politically, international pressure is mounting to stop the fighting in Libya, and the United States has joined in calling for the resumption of political negotiations, and has demanded an end to Russia's intervention.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the start of UN-sponsored negotiations on the crisis in Libya, calling on Russia and other countries to stop their involvement in the Libyan crisis.
Pompeo stressed that putting Libya on the path of economic recovery means preserving Libyan oil facilities, and was alluding to this that loyalists of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar closed oil fields in southern Libya, a few days after resuming work in them following the recent victories achieved by the forces of the reconciliation government.
Simultaneously, the US embassy - in a statement - called on the Libyan parties to stop the escalation, and warned against engaging in reprisals.
The American statements came a day after the European Union, Italy, France and Germany issued a joint statement calling for an urgent ceasefire in Libya.
In the context of the diplomatic momentum itself, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, discussed the Libyan crisis by phone.
The Russian presidency said that Putin stressed during the call the importance of the ceasefire in Libya as soon as possible, and the resumption of dialogue on the basis of the outputs of the Berlin International Conference, adding that the two presidents expressed their deep concern over the continuing clashes in Libya and the casualties it left.
For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşo أوlu said that the initiative announced by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last Saturday - which includes a ceasefire in Libya - was still dead.
The Turkish newspaper "Hurriyet" quoted Gawishoglu that the aim of this initiative is to save Haftar, after the recent Al-Wefaq government victories that enabled it to control the entire Libyan West.
He also described the call that came in what was called the "Cairo Declaration" for a cease-fire without being sincere and which cannot be trusted, noting that Haftar escaped from the signing of the ceasefire in Moscow and Berlin, and that he has no place in any agreement for a future political solution.
A crack between Haftar's supporters
Meanwhile, French online website Intelligence Online said that there has been a major rift between supporters of Haftar, especially the UAE, Egypt and France.
The website, which deals with intelligence affairs, revealed that Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed is tired of seeing the UAE funds being spent on Haftar's forces without success.
He stated that the sons of Hifter carry out the exchange of funds while his forces continue to request more military equipment, noting that the differences between the Emirati officers and the leaders of the forces of Hifter have reached the point of physical engagement in the recent period.