Greek Prime Minister to Visit Libya, Reopen Embassy

Arab World

April 2nd, 6:05am

Asharq Al-Awsat

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. (AP)

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will hold a landmark visit to Libya next week and reopen the country’s embassy after over six years, Athens said on Thursday. Mitsotakis will travel to Tripoli on Tuesday “to normalize and restore relations,” said Greek government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni. Accompanied by Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, the prime minister is to meet with the head of the presidential council, Mohammed Younes Menfi, and interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, Peloni said. The visit will “signal the Greek Embassy’s immediate reopening,” she said. Greece’s Embassy in Tripoli has been closed since July 2014, when a Greek navy frigate helped to evacuate nearly 200 Greeks and other foreigners from the country. Foreign Minister Dendias had previously visited Tobruk in July 2020 for talks with Parliament Speaker Aguila Saleh. Authorities in western Libya have released 120 fighters from the eastern force, the latest move toward reconciliation in a UN-backed peace process aimed at ending years of violence. The men were fighting for the 107th Brigade under the command of eastern military strongman Haftar. The fighters had been captured near the western city of Zawiya in April 2019. On Wednesday, dressed in loose white outfits and matching skullcaps, they were released following a ceremony in Zawiya, 45 km east of Tripoli. The ceremony took place at a sports ground in Zawiya under heavy security. In a speech, Abdallah Al-Lafi, vice president of the country’s new presidential council, welcomed the move and called for further reconciliation and rebuilding. “We must not pass on hatred and bitterness to our children,” he said. The UN’s Libya mission UNSMIL welcomed the release of the fighters, hailing the “efforts by the national unity government.” The mission tweeted that it “hopes that this initiative constitutes the start of a national reconciliation” and called for “the release of all detainees before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan” in two weeks. Dbeibah tweeted that “Libya’s future and development are linked to its ability to heal its wounds through national reconciliation.”

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2895476/greek-prime-minister-visit-libya-reopen-embassy