CAIRO: Greece’s chief diplomat arrived Sunday in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials on issues including controversial maritime and gas deals that Turkey signed with one of Libya’s rival administrations, officials said.
Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias landed in Cairo’s airport before heading for talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shukry, according to Egypt’s Foreign Ministry. The ministry said the two ministers would hold a news conference afterwards.
Egypt and Greece have strengthened ties in recent years, including cooperation in fields ranging from energy to combating terrorism. The two nations, along with Cyprus, have signed maritime border agreements. Ahmed Abu Zeid, the ministry’s spokesman, described Egyptian-Greek ties as “a long standing strategic partnership and historic friendship.”
Dendias wrote on Twitter ahead of his trip that besides Greece-Egypt ties, the talks would focus on developments in the Aegean Sea, Libya and the Middle East.
He was likely referring to tensions with Turkey over the alleged deployment of dozens of US-made armored vehicles by Greece to the Aegean islands of Samos and Lesbos. He also pointed to memorandums of understanding between Turkey and the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, one of Libya’s two competing governments.
The deals, signed last week in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, include the joint exploration of hydrocarbon reserves in Libya’s offshore waters and national territory. Dendias slammed the deals as illegal, saying they infringed on Greek waters. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry also argued that Dbeibah’s government has “no authority to conclude any international agreements nor memorandums of understanding,” given that its mandate expired.
Libya has been mired in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. The country has since been ruled by rival governments for most of the past decade. There are now two administrations claiming legitimacy: Dbeibah’s in Tripoli and another parliament-appointed government chaired by Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha.
Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya expert with the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank, said Turkey’s deals with Dbeibah’s government, which have “little legal value,” were meant to provoke Greece.
They were “part of the politics of hyper-nationalistic assertiveness that a weak, unpopular (President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan seeks to cultivate as he goes into the June 2023 elections,” he said.
Erdogan’s government exploited Dbeibah’s weakened position after Turkey helped him defend his position in Tripoli when Bashagha attempted in August to install his government in the capital, Harchaoui said. Turkey has troops and allied Syrian mercenaries on the ground in the Libyan capital.
“Dbeibah was in no position to say ‘No’ to the (memorandums of understanding). Turkey has played a decisive role in maintaining him in Tripoli thus far, so he has no choice but to say ‘Yes’,” he said in written comments.
The Libyan prime minister defended the deals, saying they would help Libya pursue oil and gas exploration “in our territorial waters with the help of neighboring countries.”
Turkey’s agreements with Dbeibah’s government came three years after another controversial agreement between Ankara and a former Tripoli government. That 2019 deal granted Turkey access to a contested economic zone in the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean Sea region, fueling Turkey’s pre-existing tensions with Greece, Cyprus and Egypt over oil and gas drilling rights in the region.
Greek Foreign Minister in Egypt for talks after Turkey’s deals with Libya
https://arab.news/z7ggn
Greek Foreign Minister in Egypt for talks after Turkey’s deals with Libya
- Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias landed in Cairo’s airport before heading for talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shukry
- Egypt and Greece have strengthened ties in fields ranging from energy to combating terrorism
Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria’s largest export during the country’s more than 13-year civil war, effectively turning it into a narco state under Assad.
“We found a large quantity of captagon, around one million pills,” said a balaclava-wearing member of the security forces, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Osama, and whose khaki uniform bore a “public security” patch.
An AFP journalist saw forces pour fuel over and set fire to a cache of cannabis, the painkiller tramadol, and around 50 bags of pink and yellow captagon pills in a security compound formerly belonging to Assad’s forces in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district.
Captagon has flooded the black market across the region in recent years, with oil-rich Saudi Arabia a major destination.
“The security forces of the new government discovered a drug warehouse as they were inspecting the security quarter,” said another member of the security forces, who identified himself as Hamza.
Authorities destroyed the stocks of alcohol, cannabis, captagon and hashish in order to “protect Syrian society” and “cut off smuggling routes used by Assad family businesses,” he added.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have yet to spell out their policy on alcohol, which has long been widely available in the country.
Since an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, Syria’s new authorities have said massive quantities of captagon have been found in former government sites around the country, including security branches.
AFP journalists in Syria have seen fighters from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) set fire to what they said were stashes of captagon found at facilities once operated by Assad’s forces.
Security force member Hamza confirmed Wednesday that “this is not the first initiative of its kind — the security services, in a number of locations, have found other warehouses... and drug manufacturing sites and destroyed them in the appropriate manner.”
Maher Assad, a military commander and the brother of Bashar Assad, is widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade.
Experts believe Syria’s former leader used the threat of drug-fueled unrest to put pressure on Arab governments.
A Saudi delegation met Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, a source close to the government told AFP, to discuss the “Syria situation and captagon.”
Jordan in recent years has also cracked down on the smuggling of weapons and drugs including captagon along its 375-kilometer (230-mile) border with Syria.
Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall
AMMAN: About 18,000 Syrians have crossed into their country from Jordan since the government of Bashar Assad was toppled earlier this month, Jordanian authorities said on Thursday.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told state TV channel Al-Mamlaka that “around 18,000 Syrians have returned to their country between the fall of the regime of Bashar Assad on December 8, 2024 until Thursday.”
He said the returnees included 2,300 refugees registered with the United Nations.
Amman says it has hosted about 1.3 million Syrians who fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011, with 650,000 formally registered with the United Nations.
Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
- Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war
- Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders
DUBAI: Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel – a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist militants captured the capital Damascus.
Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.
Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria’s new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule.
The delegation, led by Iraqi intelligence chief Hamid Al-Shatri, “met with the new Syrian administration,” government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi told state media, adding that the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena, and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border.”
Israeli minister’s Al-Aqsa mosque visit sparks condemnation
- Ben Gvir has repeatedly defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem
JERUSALEM: Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Thursday, triggering angry reactions from the Palestinian Authority and Jordan accusing the far-right politician of a deliberate provocation.
Ben Gvir has repeatedly defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which is revered by both Muslims and Jews and has been a focal point of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I went up to the site of our temple this morning to pray for the peace of our soldiers, the swift return of all hostages and a total victory, God willing,” Ben Gvir said in a message on social media platform X, referring to the Gaza war and the dozens of Israeli captives held in the Palestinian territory.
He also posted a photo of himself on the holy site, with members of the Israeli security forces and the famed golden Dome of the Rock in the background.
The Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City is Islam’s third-holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian national identity.
Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, it is also Judaism’s holiest place, revered as the site of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Under the status quo maintained by Israel, which has occupied east Jerusalem and its Old City since 1967, Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound during specified hours, but they are not permitted to pray there or display religious symbols.
Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital, while Israeli leaders have insisted that the entire city is their “undivided” capital.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “condemns” Ben Gvir’s latest visit, calling his prayer at the site a “provocation to millions of Palestinians and Muslims.”
Jordan, which administers the mosque compound, similarly condemned what its foreign ministry called Ben Gvir’s “provocative and unacceptable” actions.
The ministry’s statement decried a “violation of the historical and legal status quo.”
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief statement that “the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed.”
