ISTANBUL 

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi met Wednesday with Eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to relaunch and renew cooperation between Italy and Cyrenaica on security issues and socio-economic development.

“At the center of the cordial and fruitful discussion was the cooperation in combating transnational criminal networks in the fight against terrorism and human trafficking,” Italy’s Interior Ministry said in a statement on the US social media company X’s platform.

“We shared the need to continue strengthening our already positive collaboration,” the ministry cited Piantedosi as saying.