The Head of the new Presidential Council in Libya, Mohammed Menfi, has met with Khalifa Haftar, who leads a self-styled army of a group of forces in eastern Libya that carried out a number of war crimes from 2014 onward, in Al-Rajma outside Benghazi in eastern Libya.

The meeting between Menfi and Haftar came at the headquarters of the latter's general command as the Head of the Presidential Council made his first visit to Libya - specifically to Benghazi - coming from Greece on Thursday.

The Libyan Political Dialogue Forum members elected last Friday in Geneva Mohammed Menfi as Head of the new Presidential Council, with Mossa Al-Koni and Abdullah Al-Lafi as members and Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah as a Prime Minister.

Menfi was residing in Athens as he was previously the Libyan Government of National Accord's (GNA) ambassador to Greece, which expelled him months ago in protest of the GNA maritime MoU with Turkey.

Menfi said on Twitter before he made the visit to Cyrenaica region that his visit to Benghazi aimed to achieve national reconciliation and cooperation with all Libyan parties and social components to end people’s suffering.

He also called on all Libyans to assume their responsibilities to face the ongoing challenges at this interim period in Libya’s history.

Meanwhile, commenting on the meeting between Menfi and Haftar, the Head of the High Council of State, Khalid Al-Mishri, rejected such "a troubling start of the new Head of the Presidential Council," saying Menfi met with a war criminal and that would send a negative message to Libyans: "not a message of unity after all of Haftar’s crimes".

Likewise, LPDF member Rabia Buras, said Menfi had no right to "jump on the unity understandings and visit war criminal Haftar who destroyed Tripoli, and then put  all the sacrifices made to defend the capital on the shelf" for his approach of peace, adding that Menfi should have visited eastern Libyan elders and civilians "not the waelord".