Athens seeking restart with Tripoli

After several years of virtually nonexistent relations, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis spoke on the telephone Wednesday with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush, signaling that contacts between Athens and Tripoli are at a turning point in the effort to build functional channels of communication.

The development is not unrelated to the normalization in recent months of Greek-Turkish relations. The 2019 Turkish-Libyan memorandum was the main stumbling block in Athens-Tripoli relations.

According to diplomatic sources, Gerapetritis stressed the need to relaunch relations between Athens and Tripoli and to open direct channels of communication, while reminding his interlocutor of Greece's decision to upgrade its diplomatic representation in Libya by accrediting a Greek ambassador in Tripoli after almost a decade.

When the embassy reopened in 2018, a chief of...