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Rabat – Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias spoke out in support of the Skhirat agreement to resolve the conflict in Libya on Wednesday, January 15 in Rabat.
The Skhirat agreement refers to a comprehensive political agreement to resolve the conflict in Libya. Libya’s rival factions signed the peace agreement in Skhirat, Morocco on December 17, 2015.
The agreement sought to resolve the dispute between the House of Representatives (HoR) and its government, and the General National Congress (GNC). The accord created a Presidential Council and the High Council of State and established the Government of National Accord (GNA).
Morocco, a key player in mediating the conflict, maintains that the Skhirat agreement is the only way to ensure a peaceful institutional transition in Libya. Morocco considers Libya’s stability to be a regional priority.
As the rival factions move towards a major escalation, international actors have been scrambling to facilitate a concrete resolution.
“The only tangible result for Libyans after all these efforts is the Skhirat agreement,” Dendias said in a press briefing after meeting with Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita.
Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) reported that Dendias expressed his surprise that the organizers of the upcoming international conference in Berlin on the Libyan crisis did not invite Morocco nor Greece to attend.
The conference is set to take place on Sunday, January 19, on the heels of a failed meeting in Moscow.
Fayez Sarraj, the head of Libya’s UN-recognized government in Tripoli, and his rival Khalifa Hifter, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), met with top diplomats and military officials from Russia and Turkey in Moscow on Monday, January 13.
The warring rivals did not reach an agreement in Moscow, prompting further talks in Berlin this weekend.
Dendias classed the two agreements signed in Moscow as “null and void” as they are “in flagrant violation of the Skhirat agreement.”
The Moscow agreements “do not serve peace and stability in the region, and they do not serve the interests of the Libyan people,” said Dendias.
The diplomat affirmed Greece’s position on the matter, a postion it shares with the European Council and the US Department of State.
Dendias added, however, that Greece “supports any effort capable of putting an end to the (Libyan) conflict, and establishing real peace and stability in Libya and the region.”
Dendias and Bourita both verbalized their hopes to see a successful outcome from the Berlin conference.
In addition to his remarks on the Skhirat agreement, Dendias commended King Mohammed VI’s development model and highlighted the role of Morocco as a beacon of peace and stability in the region and throughout Africa.
Libya has suffered from increasing foreign interference in the long-running factional conflict that has left the country in crisis since the fall of Muammar Gadaffi in 2011.
Morocco maintains its firm position that political conflicts should be solved with political solutions, repeatedly condemning military interference in Libya.
Bourita reiterated Morocco’s stance during the press conference with Dendias, emphasizing that military interference undermines the international efforts aimed at settling the crisis.
The Moroccan minister lamented the exploitation of the Libyan people in the conflict, arguing that some parties on the ground are working in favor of foreign agendas that have nothing to do with regional stability and peace, nor the interests of the Libyan people.
As an outcome of the diplomatic meeting, Bourita and Dendias agreed to coordinate positions on the Libyan crisis.
Morocco and Greece will work together “to achieve a political solution based on the Skhirat agreement, which so far remains the only successful diplomatic experience in dealing with the Libyan issue,” Bourita declared.
Read also: UN Envoy Urges Foreign Countries to ‘Take Their Hands Out of Libya’
