Greece's foreign minister made a whirlwind tour of eastern Libya, Egypt and Cyprus Sunday amid tensions with Turkey following Ankara's contentious maritime deal with the Tripoli government. Nikos Dendias met Libya's eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi to discuss two recent "unsubstantial" agreements between Turkey and Libya's Tripoli government, the Greek foreign ministry said in a statement. In November, the Tripoli-based UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) signed the controversial maritime delimitation deal with Ankara, alongside a military cooperation agreement. After the talks in Libya, Dendias flew to Cairo, where he met his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry for discussions aimed at unifying opposition to the maritime deal. It also comes as energy ministers from Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Italy and the Palestinian territories agreed earlier this year to create the "East Mediterranean Gas Forum" without Turkey.

Source: Libya Today December 22, 2019 18:09 UTC