Libya’s two rival governments separately announced a cease-fire Friday and called for a demilitarized zone in the strategic city of Sirte, a decision welcomed by regional neighbors and Western powers as a potential step toward peace in the war-torn North African nation. But plenty of skepticism remained as Fayez Serraj, head of the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, and Aguila Saleh, speaker of a rival eastern-based government, made their apparently coordinated announcements, which also urged the resumption of Libya’s oil production and a political process paving the way for elections.

 Numerous cease-fire declarations have been made since the oil-rich nation fell into turmoil after the ouster and killing of Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi during the 2011 Arab Spring revolution and NATO intervention. All failed, and Libya experienced more conflict.  As of Friday evening, Khalifa Hifter, an eastern commander who launched an offensive against the Libyan capital last year and whose forces control Sirte as well as the country’s major oil terminals, had not publicly accepted Friday’s cease-fire declarations.

“How quickly confidence building measures or any tangible progress toward de-militarising Sirte begins will be the real measure of its significance,” tweeted Tarek Megerisi, a Libya analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, referring to the cease-fire. Saleh and Serraj, he added, “are experts at having a process for the sake of a process, cooperating only to blunt all progress.”

But at a time when Libya is in the grips of the Middle East’s biggest proxy war and a battle over Sirte threatens to bring more chaos, the United Nations, Libya’s neighbors and Western powers embraced the declarations by the two rivals.

The U.S. Embassy also welcomed the cease-fire agreement, calling it “an important step to all Libyans,” as did European powers such as Germany and Italy.  Perhaps most significantly, Egypt and Turkey welcomed the decision. Both nations have militarily supported rival sides, raising concerns in recent weeks that two U.S. allies could end up fighting each other in Libya.