Libya

Forces loyal to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar are not concerned about peace or a ceasefire in Libya, Turkey's president said on Jan. 27.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Gambia with his Gambian counterpart Adama Barrow, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan referred to a statement on Jan. 26 by Ahmed Al-Mismari, the spokesman for Haftar's forces.

Libya's state oil firm NOC has not been consulted on a controversial maritime accord Libya's internationally recognised government signed with Turkey, NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla said on Monday.

The deal, signed last month, seeks to create an exclusive economic zone from Turkey's southern Mediterranean shore to Libya's northeast coast. 

[Reuters]

The French Ambassador to Greece Patrick Maisonnave on Monday underlined France's interest in boosting defense ties with Greece during a press conference delivered from the Dixmude amphibious assault ship and helicopter carrier which is currently docked at the port of Piraeus and participating in exercises with Greek armed forces. 

No one will send to Libya any additional advisors or troops or mercenaries or other personnel as long as the truce is observed, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Jan. 23.

The issue of sanctions will not be raised under the same condition, the minister said in an interview with Russia's RIA News Agency.

The European Union will not agree to a political solution to Libya's factional conflict unless Turkey and Libya abandon a maritime accord they signed in November, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday.

Some 300 Turks living in and around the Libyan capital have said that they feel better after a truce between the battling sides in the country.

Turkish citizens living under the siege by Gen. Khalifa Haftar's military forces for nine months are mostly owners of restaurants, furniture shops and auto mechanic shops, according to the Turkish consulate in Tripoli.

Rocket fire forced the suspension of all flights into and out of Tripoli's sole functioning airport on Jan. 22, only nine days after it reopened following a truce, Libya's embattled U.N.-recognised government said.

Turkey's foreign minister on Jan. 22 said the Syrian regime's attacks in the last rebel-held enclave of Idlib are "unacceptable" and called on Russia to abide by a recent ceasefire brokered by Ankara and Moscow as a guarantor state.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Davutoglu said Tuesday that there is no reason for Greece to participate in the Berlin Process, the initiative to try to resolve the crisis in Libya.

"Why did Mitsotakis invite Haftar to Greece? Did he just want to provoke us?" an annoyed Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on his return from the Berlin conference on the Libya crisis regarding the meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar in Athens on Friday.