Haftar agreed with all Greek points, Dendias says: Meeting with Prime Minister
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said that Haftar had agreed with all Greece’s points, including the need to recognise that the memoranda signed by Turkey and the Sarraj government were illegal and invalid. APE- MPE, DIMITRIS PAPAMITSOS
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The meeting between Libyan National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was concluded on Friday. “We are pacifists. We have come here to talk about peace,” Haftar said as he arrived for a meeting with Mitsotakis, at the prime minister’s offices in parliament.
Earlier, Haftar had a meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias.
Following his meeting with the Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar in Athens on Friday, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said that Haftar had agreed with all Greece’s points, including the need to recognise that the memoranda signed by Turkey and the Sarraj government were illegal and invalid.
“We, on our part, encouraged the commander to participate in the Berlin Conference [on Libya] in a constructive spirit and to attempt, given the conditions, to achieve both a ceasefire and to restore security in Libya, with the withdrawal of mercenaries and recognition of the invalidity of the illegal memoranda between Turkey and Sarraj government,” said Dendias.
THe Greek minister underlined that Greece expects Germany to express the common European position on the Turkish-Libyan MoUs, as expressed by the European Council.
“Europe has a clear position, it was expressed at the last European Council,” noted Dendias. “We expect, as Europeans, that Germany will impose and express the European position at the Berlin Conference. We expect the same from the other EU member-states that participate in this process,” he added..
Asked if Greece will veto a political solution in Libya if the agreement with Turkey is not revoked, Dendias replied: “We want to participate constructively so that the Berlin process succeeds. We assist in the UN processes. On the other hand, in this process we are trying to assist in our capacity as a European member-state, not just as Greece.”
Dendias noted that the common European position adopted at the European Council views “both memoranda as invalid and void,” adding that every EU member-state, not just Greece, “has the self-evident duty to support the common position, a position we reached unanimously at the Council.”
“Therefore, I don’t want to see things as a form of veto, I see them as an effort [to support] our common European position. Of course, if this is not respected then every European country has an obligation to defend this position. As Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made made clear on Thursday, Greece will also defend the common European position,” the minister said.
Dendias said that Greece is ready to help Libya going forward “either through its participation in those forces that are needed in order for there to be a truce (the international truce monitoring mechanism) or through the participation of Greek forces in the European operation to impose an embargo on arms and the transfer of mercenaries to Libya,” he said.
“These actions assist in creating a better reality in Libya and constitute a contribution to the future of the Libyan people and Libyan society. We want Libya to be a modern democratic country, in which the citizens will be able to express their will and become part of the overall architecture, stability and security of the region,” concluded Dendias.
Source: ANA-MPA
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