The forces of the retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Haftar announced - today, Sunday - the rejection of the ceasefire agreement announced by the Presidential Council of the internationally recognized Libyan government and the Tobruk Parliament last Friday, describing it as an attempt at media marketing.

Ahmed Al-Mesmari, a spokesman for Haftar's forces, said that his forces are ready to respond to any attempt to attack his positions around the coastal city of Sirte and Al-Jufrah in the south.

Al-Mismari added - in a press conference - that there are meetings held by the Libyan government forces, and they decided to attack the strategic city of Sirte.

In his statements, the spokesman for Haftar's forces avoided commenting on the demand of Tobruk Parliament Speaker Aqila Saleh on all sides for a ceasefire.

Al-Mesmari's statements are the first official response from Haftar's forces, after announcing a ceasefire on Friday and calling for the resumption of oil production.

Al-Mismari's statements are the first response by Haftar's forces to the ceasefire agreement (Al-Jazeera)

And on Friday, the internationally recognized government of Fayez al-Sarraj and the Tobruk Parliament agreed, in two simultaneous statements, to an immediate ceasefire. The two statements met in common points, most notably the ceasefire and the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections. The statement called for the reconciliation government to make the cities of Sirte and Al-Jufrah demilitarized zones.

Local sources from the Libyan city of Sirte confirmed to Al Jazeera that security services in the city loyal to Haftar cut off communications and internet services inside the city and isolated it, after the Government of National Accord demanded that the city be demilitarized.

The sources pointed out that the city was isolated from its surroundings, and armed patrols were deployed in some of its main streets, while Al-Madar Al-Jadid Company - a Libyan government telecommunications company - said that its services inside the city and its suburbs had been stopped due to the suspension of network equipment - which it described as unknown - in the Sirte city divide. .

The importance of the city of Sirte - located in the middle of the Libyan coast - is that it opens the way to the strategic oil-crescent region in the east of the country controlled by Haftar's forces.