Athens opposes Libya\u2019s maritime accord with arch-rival Turkey
\nGreek premier, Germany\u2019s Merkel discussed Libya on FridayBy\u00a0Eleni Chrepa\u00a0and\u00a0Paul Tugwell<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) —\u00a0Greece\u00a0warned it may try to block any Libyan peace deal that doesn\u2019t resolve a dispute over regional maritime borders, as Prime Minister\u00a0Kyriakos Mitsotakis\u00a0met with military commander\u00a0Khalifa Haftar\u00a0ahead of a Berlin conference on the country\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Greek government, which won\u2019t take part in the Berlin summit, will not accept any political deal for Libya that doesn\u2019t annul an agreement the country struck with Greece\u2019s rival Turkey on maritime borders, Prime Minister\u00a0Kyriakos Mitsotakis\u00a0said in an interview on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreece will veto, even at foreign-minister level before it makes it to head-of-state level,\u201d any\u00a0Libya\u00a0agreement that doesn\u2019t annul the pact with Turkey, Mitsotakis said.<\/p>\n
Greece may not get that chance.<\/p>\n
Mitsotakis was left off the invitation list for the peace talks in Berlin this weekend, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister\u00a0Giuseppe Conte\u00a0and\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Secretary of State\u00a0Michael Pompeo\u00a0will join\u00a0Russia\u2019s\u00a0Vladimir Putin\u00a0and\u00a0Turkey\u2019s\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the two leaders who\u2019ve been calling the shots on Libya.<\/p>\n
The politicians in Berlin are seeking a deal on foreign intervention after Russia and Turkey\u00a0failed\u00a0to persuade Haftar on a visit to Moscow to agree to a\u00a0ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Migrant Trafficking<\/p>\n
The battle to secure control over the government has reduced oil-producing Libya to near-failed state status, with the country becoming a center for migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n
President\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u00a0said Thursday that Turkey plans to issue new exploration licenses in the eastern Mediterranean following the maritime deal with Libya, a step likely to add to tensions with Greece and the\u00a0European Union. Erdogan, who backs Fayez al-Serraj\u2019s government in Libya, said Friday that Haftar is not reliable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encouraged Commander Haftar to participate in the Berlin process with a positive spirit,\u201d Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias told reporters after a meeting in Athens. \u201cWe expect\u00a0Germany\u00a0to safeguard the European position for Libya matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greece \u201cwill do whatever it takes\u201d to protect its sovereignty if Turkey begins hydrocarbon drilling in waters Greece claims as its own, Mitsotakis said, adding that he doesn\u2019t believe the situation in the Aegean will escalate.<\/p>\n
Mitsotakis also held a call with German Chancellor\u00a0Angela Merkel\u00a0on Friday to discuss the issue.
\nGreece should have been invited to the Berlin summit, Mitsotakis said. \u201cWe should be in Berlin to discuss the future of a country whose stability is of interest to Europe, and of particular interest to Greece,\u201d the premier said.<\/p>\n
Greece\u2019s participation in the conference had never been considered, German Government Spokesman\u00a0Steffen Seibert\u00a0said at a news conference in Berlin on Friday.<\/p>\n
Berlin shared Greece\u2019s concerns about the maritime dispute, which was already being dealt with in separate European forums, he added.\u201cThis conference doesn\u2019t deal with that issue.\u201d(Updates with foreign minister comment in 10th paragraph, Merkel call in 12th)–With assistance from\u00a0Sotiris Nikas\u00a0and\u00a0Raymond Colitt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Athens opposes Libya\u2019s maritime accord with arch-rival Turkey Greek premier, Germany\u2019s Merkel discussed Libya on FridayBy\u00a0Eleni Chrepa\u00a0and\u00a0Paul Tugwell (Bloomberg) —\u00a0Greece\u00a0warned it may try to block any Libyan peace deal that doesn\u2019t resolve a dispute over regional maritime borders, as Prime Minister\u00a0Kyriakos Mitsotakis\u00a0met with military commander\u00a0Khalifa Haftar\u00a0ahead of a Berlin conference on the country\u2019s future. The\u00a0Greek<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19239,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19238\/revisions\/19239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bestinsurance.gr\/a1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}