By Eleni Chrepa andPaul Tugwell
Greece warned it may try to block any Libyan peace deal that doesn’t resolve a dispute over regional maritime borders, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with military commander Khalifa Haftar ahead of a Berlin conference on the country’s future.
The Greek government, which won’t take part in the Berlin summit, will not accept any political deal for Libya that doesn’t annul an agreement the country struck with Greece’s rival Turkey on maritime borders, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview on Thursday.
“Greece will veto, even at foreign-minister level before it makes it to head-of-state level,” any Libya agreement that doesn’t annul the pact with Turkey, Mitsotakis said.
Greece may not get that chance.
Mitsotakis was left off the invitation list for the peace talks in Berlin this weekend, where German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo will join Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the two leaders who’ve been calling the shots on Libya.
The politicians in Berlin are seeking a deal on foreign intervention after Russia and Turkey failed to persuade Haftar on a visit to Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.
Read more at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-16/greece-to-veto-libya-solution-if-turkey-pact-isn-t-withdrawn
