Greek Foreign Minister cuts visit to Tripoli short after diplomatic incident

Greece’s foreign minister Nikos Dendias called off the first leg of a visit to Libya on Thursday, refusing to disembark from his plane after landing in the capital of Tripoli, Greek authorities said.

Dendias instead flew to the city of Benghazi in Libya’s east.

The Greek Foreign Minister was on a two-part trip that was to include a meeting with the president of Libya’s western, Tripoli-based government, Mohamed Younis Menfi. That was to be followed by a meeting in Benghazi with the east-based administration.

A terse statement from the Greek ministry indicated Dendias did not want to meet with his Tripoli counterpart, Najla Mangoush, yet she came to the airport to greet him.

As soon as Dendias was informed of the presence of Mangoush at the airport, he decided to immediately leave for Benghazi without even getting off the government plane.

Dendias later told reporters that Mangoush “tried to force me, by her presence at the airport, to meet with her.”

Mangoush, who is a minister with the Tripoli caretaker government, signed the Turkish-Libyan agreement for hydrocarbon exploration with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in October.

Athens’ position, with which Egypt is also aligned, is that the term of the current Tripoli government has expired and it cannot legitimately sign international agreements that are binding for the country’s future.

Mohamed Hamuda, a spokesman from the Tripoli-based government, said Mangoush’s presence at the airport was part of diplomatic conventions.

In response, Libya on Thursday recalled its ambassador to Athens and the foreign ministry summoned the Greek chargé d’affaire in Tripoli to protest the Greek foreign minister’s decision to cancel his meeting with the head of the country’s Presidency Council.

Source: AP News.