Libyan strongman seeks Greek support to counter Turkish threat

ATHENS: The commander of forces fighting the UN-supported government in Libya has visited Athens in a bid to counter Turkey’s support for his opponents.

General Khalifa Hifter’s surprise trip to Greece came two days before a summit in Berlin, which aims to halt the conflict in the oil-rich country that is being fuelled by competing international support for the warring sides in Libya.

Separately, the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be attending the meeting in Germany.

Turkey, which has sent troops to back Libya’s government against Gen Hifter’s offensive, is at odds with Greece over oil-and-gas drilling rights in the east Mediterranean.

In November, Turkey and the Libyan government in Tripoli signed a controversial maritime deal delineating a boundary between the two countries in the Mediterranean. Libya has been divided between two competing governments since 2015, one based in Benghazi in the east and the other based in Tripoli.

The agreement would give Turkey and Libya access to an economic zone across the Mediterranean despite the objections of Greece, Egypt and Cyprus, which lie between the two geographically.

Greek foreign minister Nikos Dendias, speaking after meeting Gen Hifter, said the Greek government had encouraged the Libyan general to “participate (in the Berlin meeting) constructively” and to work towards achieving a ceasefire and restoring security in Libya “by removing mercenaries and by the recognition of the invalidity of the illegal agreements” between Turkey and the government in Tripoli.

“I must tell you with great pleasure that the commander agreed to all of those remarks,” Dendias said. The minister said Greece was willing to help police a European ban on arms shipments to Libya.

Gen Hifter made no comments after his talks with Dendias or a later meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Mitsotakis, who was not invited to Berlin, said on Thursday that Greece “will never accept a political solution for Libya that does not require the cancellation” of the maritime deal with Turkey. “We will use our veto before the case gets to the summit meeting. We will veto it at a foreign ministers’ level,” he said.

However, it was unclear exactly what Greece could block. A Greek official said the veto would be applied to “any decision concerning Libya on a European level if it doesn’t include the annulment” of the maritime deal.

Asked in Berlin why Greece was not invited to the summit, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said “Greece’s participation in the Berlin Libya conference was never up for debate”.

Russia and Turkey held talks with the warring sides in Moscow on Monday, focusing on a ceasefire agreement. Gen Hifter and Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libya’s UN-recognised government in Tripoli, did not meet directly and held separate talks with Russian and Turkish diplomats and military officials.

But Gen Hifter refused to sign the ceasefire document. Russia’s acting foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said the most important outcome of the talks was that the truce was still holding in Libya.

However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed doubt that Gen Hifter would abide by any ceasefire. “This man is not a trustworthy man,” he told reporters in Istanbul. “Yesterday, they continued to bomb Tripoli.”

Erdogan, who will be attending the meeting in Berlin, said Turkey would monitor Gen Hifter’s actions following the conference. “My hope is that he will stand behind the promise he made,” Erdogan said.