An unusual situation in diplomacy. Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias landed in Tripoli, Libya, and was told his counterpart, who has close ties to Turkey, was waiting for him. At that moment, he ordered the pilot to take off again, writes Politico.

Nikos Dendiadis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of GreecePhoto: ALEXANDROS MICHAILIDIS / Alamy / Alamy / Profimedia

According to the quoted source, the Greek minister would agree to come to Tripoli on one condition, according to diplomatic officials: to meet only with Mohamed al-Menfi, president of Libya’s presidential council and a former ambassador to Greece. Dendias did not want to be photographed with Najla Mangoush, the foreign minister of Libya, which signed an agreement with Turkey on the exploration of energy resources.

Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced on Twitter that Ankara had signed two memorandums on hydrocarbons and a protocol with the Libyan government.

  • Apart from visibility. High stakes for the Turkish-Greek conflict in the Mediterranean

According to the information, the agreement between Turkey and Libya provides for the concession to Ankara of the exclusive economic zone of Libya in the form in which it was delimited in the agreement with Turkey through the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum of cooperation, reports Efimerida ton. Syntaxton.

Greece claims that the memorandum on the delimitation of the continental shelf between Libya and Turkey violates the exclusive economic zones of other Mediterranean countries.

Greek diplomatic sources stress that compliance with the 2020 agreement between Greece and Egypt on the delimitation of the two countries’ exclusive economic zones is absolutely essential. In this context, diplomatic sources warn that the violation of this agreement will not be allowed, nor will a new source of tension in the Mediterranean be ignited.

The same diplomatic sources also emphasize that in any situation Greece will defend its sovereignty and sovereign rights on the basis of international law, especially on the basis of international maritime law, and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens will send information in this regard to allies and partners.