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Erdogan Says Europe Should Support Turkish Effort If It Wants To End Libyan ConflictHaftar thanks Putin and backs Russia's peace initiatve for Libya:
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has called on Europe to support his country's efforts in Libya, where it is providing military support to the internationally-recognized government, if it wants to end the conflict there.
The GNA government may be 'internationally recognized' but it is apparently very unpopular with the vast majority of Libyans.
Erdogan made his remarks in a column published on the Politico website on January 18, one day ahead of a UN-sponsored summit in Berlin that will try to stabilize the country.
Representatives of more than 10 countries, including Erdogan, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and others are expected to attend the January 19 conference. China, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Egypt, Algeria, and the United Arab Emirates are expected to send representatives as well.
The European Union and the Arab League will also participate.
At the meeting, Germany and the United Nations will push rival Libyan camps fighting over the capital, Tripoli, to agree to a truce and monitoring mechanism as first steps toward peace, diplomats and a draft communique said.
Turkey supports the government of Fayez al-Serraj in Tripoli and describes Khalifa Haftar, who heads the eastern Libyan National Army (LNA), as a coup plotter.
"Keeping in mind that Europe is less interested in providing military support to Libya, the obvious choice is to work with Turkey, which has already promised military assistance," Erdogan wrote.
"We will train Libya's security forces and help them combat terrorism, human trafficking, and other serious threats against international security," he added.
In an article published in Tripoli on January 18, the UN's special envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, called for "all foreign fighters" to leave Libya.
Salame also said ending illegal weapons smuggling into the country will be on the agenda in Berlin.
The summit on January 19 will put pressure on Haftar and the LNA to halt a nine-month offensive against Tripoli after a week-long lull in fighting. But it will not try to broker power-sharing between the two sides, said diplomats briefed on preparations.
Haftar and Serraj are both due in Berlin -- along with Erdogan and the leaders of Russia, Egypt and other Western and Arab powers. Libya has been in turmoil since the fall of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Erdogan said that, if Libya's legitimate government were to fall, Islamist militant groups such as Islamic State and Al Qaeda "will find a fertile ground to get back on their feet".
Haftar is backed by the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Sudanese and Chadian fighters, and most recently Russian mercenaries. France has also given some support.
"I thank you and express full support for the Russian initiative for holding peace talks in Moscow, which should lead to peace in Libya. I confirm that we are ready to accept your invitation to visit the Russian Federation to continue the dialogue that has begun, "the letter says.Greece's FM says the army are willing to provide support to Haftar:
In addition, the Libyan military leader expressed personal gratitude and appreciation for Russia's efforts to establish peace in the North African country.
Recall that Haftar, who had previously left Moscow without signing a ceasefire agreement with the PNS Saraj, said that the proposed version of the document ignored a number of demands put forward by the LNA. "The project (cessation of hostilities. - Ed .) Ignores many of the demands of the Libyan (national) army," Al-Arabiya television quoted Haftar as saying.
Faiz Saraj on January 13 signed a ceasefire agreement following the six-hour talks in Moscow. In the evening of the same day, Khalifa Haftar asked for time until Tuesday morning to make a decision, but did not sign the document and left the Russian capital in the early morning. After his departure south of Tripoli, clashes between the LNA and PNS formations resumed.
In Libya, after nine months of fighting, the LNA under the command of Marshal Khalifa Haftar and the GNA, led by Faiz Saraj, previously agreed to a truce, which formally entered into force at midnight on Sunday, January 12. Following the results of negotiations in Istanbul on January 8, the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adopted a joint statement, which, in particular, called on the warring parties in Libya to declare a truce.
During his meeting with Khalifa Haftar, Nikos Dendias expressed Greece's intention to contribute to the protection of the truce in Libya.See also: Libya ceasefire holding, Greece proposes sending troops to protect its oil & gas interests in Meditarranean
In every possible way - to ensure truce - Greece is ready to support Libya according to Nikos Dendias. The initial report on our country's involvement with "forces" in the protection of the ceasefire, caused a lot of discussion and was followed by clarifications by the Foreign Ministry.
Specific sources in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stress that the phrase "Greece is ready to help the next day in Libya, either by joining those forces needed to bring the truce", refers exclusively to observers under a possible international monitoring mechanism. truce.
The Foreign Minister, following his meeting with General Khalifa Haftar , emphasized, inter alia: " I told him that Greece was ready to help the next day, either by joining those forces needed to bring the truce. , or with the participation of Greek forces in the European arms embargo and the transfer of mercenaries to Libya. "
All of this is a contribution to the future of the Libyan people. We want it to be a modern democratic country. Greece is not a member of the Berlin process, which we know Greece has not participated in since 2015, but we continue to believe that the hostess would see our participation as something positive. "
In detail his statements
"For our part, we encouraged the army to engage in a constructive spirit in the Berlin process and to try, within the framework of the Treaties, to achieve a ceasefire and restore security in Libya, the removal of mercenaries, recognition. the invalidity of the unlawful memorandums between Turkey and the government of Saraj, "Dendias stressed, adding:
"I have to say with great pleasure that General Haftar agreed with all our comments above." "Europe has a clear position, expressed by the last European Council," Mr Dendias said. "Our common European position recognizes the nullity and non-existence of the memorandums signed by the government of Saraj and Turkey. We therefore expect Europeans from Germany to impose and express the European position in the Berlin process. We expect the same from other EU member states involved in this process. "
Asked whether Greece will veto a Libyan political solution if the agreement with Turkey is not revoked, Dendias said: "We want to be constructive in making the Berlin process a success. We are helping the UN processes. On the other hand, however, we are trying to help in this process not only as Greece but also as a European country. The framework for the participation of all European countries in this process has been determined by the decision of the European Council. "
And Mr Dendias continued: 'The very decision of the European Council, our common European position, provides for the nullity and non-existence of the two Memorandums. Therefore, every EU country, not just Greece, has the self-evident obligation to support the common position, the position that we have all taken unanimously in the Council. So I don't want to see things in the form of a veto, I see them as an attempt by our common European position. Of course, if this is not respected, then every European country has an obligation to defend this position. And Greece, on which Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis made a clear position yesterday, will defend our common European position. "
According to reports, the Foreign Minister's reference to Greece's involvement in the truce efforts has to do with the participation in the European Sophia Mechanism by air and floating means of surveillance of the arms embargo (already on paper) and readiness to participate as observers on an international ceasefire monitoring mechanism, if so decided.
Haftar: We are pacifists
General Haftar, at the end of the meeting and shortly before the meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said:
"We are peacemakers. We came here to discuss peace and to strengthen the two countries' co-operation."
The background of the meeting
The meetings are in view of the Berlin initiative on Libya. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will also contact German Chancellor Angela Merkel today and warn that he will veto the EU summit if any solution to Libya does not include a cancellation of the agreement with Turkey.
It is recalled that Greece had requested to attend the conference in Berlin on Sunday , but Turkey blocked the Greek request as one of the founding members of the initiative.
Haftar had recently wondered why Greece was not invited to the Berlin initiative.
Although Greece will not be present in Berlin on Sunday, it counts on France's support, as Emmanuel Macron does not support the Sharjah regime and has clashed with Turkey over a deal with Libya.
"The Turkey-Libya Memorandum does not comply with the Law of the Sea and calls into question the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus," the French Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday, continuing support movements in Athens and Nicosia.
Mr Mitsotakis will visit France on January 29, where he will meet with Macron and will be at the World Economic Forum in Davos from 22 to 24 May, where Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also be present.
Arrests have been made in connection with the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane near Tehran, Iran's judiciary has announced, following President Hassan Rouhani's call for a special probe into the deadly accident.
Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told Iranian state media on Tuesday that individuals had been detained as part of "extensive investigations" into the incident. He did not disclose how many people had been arrested.
Earlier, Rouhani said in a speech that a special court should be established to try the case. He noted that "the entire the world will be watching this court" and vowed that responsible parties would be brought to justice.
Iran's president also called the Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) admission that it shot down the plane a "first good step" towards ensuring the matter is properly dealt with.
Tehran admitted that Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 was mistaken for a projectile and shot down near the Imam Khomeini airport, killing all 176 people on board.
Iran's military claims that it never sought to cover up its mistake and had immediately informed authorities about the incident, but that this information was withheld from the public pending further investigation into the matter.
"responsible for destroying monuments dedicated to Polish and Soviet soldiers and partly [responsible] for erasing the information that Warsaw was liberated by the Red Army and its allies, such as the Polish 1st and 2nd Armies, from the memory of the residents. Older people are aware [of] who liberated our capital city, but the younger generation lives in ignorance."
While the anniversary of Warsaw's liberation is largely overlooked in modern-day Poland, it's worth paying respect to the sacrifice of the Red Army, former president and democracy hero Lech Walesa acknowledged on RT.
It's been exactly 75 years since the Soviet Union's 1st Byelorussian Front and the allied Polish 1st Army defeated the last remaining pocket of Nazi resistance, ending the five-year occupation of Warsaw. But the milestone event, in which 22,000 Soviet and 3,100 Polish soldiers lost their lives, is no longer an occasion for Poland to celebrate, it seems.
Remarkably, this policy didn't sit well with Walesa, Poland's first post-communist president and recipient of multiple Western awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize."If I were in power, I would allow myself to be invited - I would invite myself because we must remember the past, respect the past, remember that many people have died, and deserved gratitude and recognition. I would look for positive solutions so that both countries benefited and сould prevent other powers from capitalizing on our mistakes."Poland has been trying to wipe out certain parts of its history for quite some time. Last year, it went so far as to invite Angela Merkel to the commemoration of the 1939 Nazi invasion, but refused to invite Vladimir Putin to the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet forces.
The former president, who rose to prominence as leader of the Western-backed, anti-communist Solidarity movement, claimed, however, that there was "another perspective of World War II" under which Poland had fallen "into the captivity of the Soviet Union for 50 years."
The Soviet operation to liberate Warsaw began on January 14, 1945, when the 61st Army crossed the Vistula River and crushed German defenses on the outskirts of the city. Days later, it emerged that the capital stood empty and deserted as the Nazi command had ordered its destruction.
Many civilians had to flee Warsaw, others were persecuted or displaced by the retreating Germans. Those who survived say they rejoiced at the liberation and cheerfully greeted Soviet and Polish soldiers as they entered the city.
Comment: Comment: Tom Luongo writes: See also: