Greece’s foreign minister flew to Abu Dhabi, Libya, Egypt and Cyprus in the wake of Turkey threatening to send military aid to Tripoli in Libya to aid one side of the country’s civil war. His trip spotlighted a growing competition between Turkey and Qatar on one hand; and Greece, Israel, Egypt and competition over two sides of an eight-year civil conflict in Libya. The rising tensions have growing ramifications for the Mediterranean as Turkey seeks to leverage its success in Syria and S-400 purchases from Russia to conduct a sea-grab off Libya. Russia also wants to capitalize on its October 2019 Syria deal with Turkey to talk about a Libya deal next. This potentially links Idlib, Tel Abyad, and Tripoli to a Russia-Turkey detente that increasingly sees the two countries seeking larger roles in the Middle East.
Now Greece’s Nikolaos Dendias is seeking a wider alliance with states such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Israel that either share energy interests or have supported the Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar. It is now not surprising to see Riyadh making more statements about Cyprus and other countries in the Mediterranean. Russia is also playing a larger role. “It was thanks to our insistence that the organizers retreated from their original plan to convene a meeting without the Libyan parties and invited the Libyan leaders to the conference,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on January 19, he was speaking about Prime Minister of Libya’s Government of National Accord Fayez Sarraj and Commander of the Libyan National Army Khalifa Haftar…
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