Government spokesman Stelios Petsas said on Tuesday that Greece has requested to attend the Berlin Peace Conference on Libya scheduled to take place on upcoming Sunday, January 19, 2020. The Conference is to take place upon an initiative of Chancellor Angela Merkel in an effort to discuss options to broker peace in Libya.
During the regular press briefing Petsas responded to a reporter’s question about “Greece’s absence from diplomatic initiatives for Libya.”
The government spokesman said that “no one can say that Greece is absent but instead it is at the center of developments. We want to be involved in any initiative at the level of seeking a political solution.”
Despite doubts about whether the Conference would indeed take place after the failure in Moscow, Germany issued a statement issued on Tuesday, confirming the event.
The statement issued by the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel siad among others that the German leader decided to to host the meeting after consulting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Germany has invited the two fighting parties in Libya, Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and General Khalifa Haftar as well as representatives from the United States, the UN and the EU, Russia, UK, France, China, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkey and several African and Arab countries, the statement said.
Greece has a very strong interest to participate in the Conference, nonetheless the Turkey-Libya Agreement on the delimitation of maritime borders in the East Mediterranean Sea, an agreement that threatens the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus.
PS But would Germany want to allow Greeks put another issue on the table other than finding solutions to end the civil war in the north African country?