Libya

After several years of virtually nonexistent relations, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis spoke on the phone Wednesday with Najla Mangoush, the interim foreign minister of the government of national unity in Tripoli.

If the right steps are taken, the bilateral trade between Türkiye and Libya may climb to $15 billion, said Murtaza Karanfil, the head of the Türkiye-Libya Business Council at the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK).

Rivals in politically divided Libya have agreed to form a committee on sharing oil revenues, after military strongman Khalifa Haftar sought a "fair" split.

Haftar, who backs the country's eastern administration, had last week called for a committee to address the issue.

He threatened military action unless oil proceeds were divided fairly by the end of August.

Nine suspected people smugglers were granted on Monday 24 hours to prepare their testimony over accusations that they captained the fishing trawler that sank off the southern coast of Greece last week, killing 78 and leaving hundreds of others presumed dead.

Their attorneys asked for the brief extension to study the case file. 

Rescue ships fanned out Thursday in search of hundreds of migrants feared missing after their overcrowded boat capsized and sank as they tried to reach Europe. At least 78 people died.

Wednesday's deadly shipwreck off southern Greece, involving a large boat carrying migrants that capsized after apparently rebuffing offers of help, is just the latest case of smugglers packing vessels full of desperate people willing to risk their lives to reach continental Europe.

A large search and rescue operation has been launched off the southern coast of Greece after a fishing boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized and sank.

More than 80 individuals were rescued in the early hours of Wednesday in the sea area located 47 nautical miles southwest of Pylos in the southwestern region of Peloponnese. The incident took place within international waters when a fishing vessel, carrying an unknown number of undocumented migrants, capsized.

In a letter to the United Nations secretary-general, Greece's permanent representative to the UN, Evangelos Sekeris, expressed Athens' complete opposition to Libya's claims regarding the limits of its maritime zones, as reflected in a verbal communication from the Tripoli government to Cairo. 

Türkiye and Egypt have agreed to work more closely to resolve the ongoing conflict in Libya by helping the two rival Libyan groups to set up a joint military unit as part of the unification efforts in the North African country.