Greece expels Libyan Ambassador after he fails to disclose Agreement with Turkey

06/12/2019

December 6, 2019

Greece has expelled the Libyan ambassador to Athens and gave him 72 hours to leave the country. “This does not mean we break diplomatic ties with Libya,” Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said on Friday while announcing the expulsion on live broadcast.

The ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Friday morning where Dendias announced him his expulsion.

Last week, the ambassador was given a deadline until Dec 5, to deliver a copy of the controversial Turkey-Libya Agreement on the “maritime borders.” He failed to comply.

The expulsion takes place even though Greece obtained a copy of the deal by neither Turkish nor Libyan sources.

The Foreign Minister said that the decision to expel the ambassador “was an expression of Greek government’s dissatisfaction with the government in Tripoli.” He stressed that the decision was taken after “the Libyan side did not meet the conditions we had set.”

Dendias added that the text of the agreement bears the signature of the Libyan Foreign Minister, “who in September provided assurances to the Greek side in the opposite direction.”

The agreement is “unacceptable” and “raw violation” of the Convention of the Law of the Sea, Dendias stressed

The Agreement was signed by the internationally recognized government of Libya.

Although also Greece has recognized the government, now it is changing direction and sides. It has invited the President of the Libyan House of Representatives to visit the country. The Parliament is under the influence of General Haftar, the head of the Libyan National Army that fights against the government in Tripolis.