Tripoli

Eastern Libya forces will not allow the United Nations to use the only functioning airport in the capital Tripoli, a spokesman for the group that has been trying to capture the city from the internationally recognized government said on Feb. 12.

A contested memorandum of understanding delimitating maritime borders between Turkey and Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli is "outrageous" and based on a "flawed reading of international law," a US Senator said on Wednesday during a discussion at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about US Policy towards Libya.

Greece's National Council for Foreign Policy will convene Wednesday so Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias can brief opposition parties on recent developments, the ministry has announced. 

Syrian militants affiliated with groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group are currently being sent by Turkey to fight on behalf of the UN-supported government in Libya, according to two Libyan militia leaders and a Syrian war monitor.

After a meeting on Tuesday with Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias said on Tuesday that Athens and Rome both view the memorandum of understanding between Turkey and the Tripoli-based government of Libya on maritime borders as "illegal and groundless."

Some 300 Turks living in and around the Libyan capital have said that they feel better after a truce between the battling sides in the country.

Turkish citizens living under the siege by Gen. Khalifa Haftar's military forces for nine months are mostly owners of restaurants, furniture shops and auto mechanic shops, according to the Turkish consulate in Tripoli.

Rocket fire forced the suspension of all flights into and out of Tripoli's sole functioning airport on Jan. 22, only nine days after it reopened following a truce, Libya's embattled U.N.-recognised government said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Davutoglu said Tuesday that there is no reason for Greece to participate in the Berlin Process, the initiative to try to resolve the crisis in Libya.

By George Gilson

If the geopolitical volatility in the Balkans before WWI led to its description as the powder keg or tinder box of Europe, today the same many be said of the Southeastern Mediterranean but on a more expansive geographic scale, drawing in the US.

World powers and other countries with interests in Libya's long-running civil war agreed on Jan. 19 to respect a much-violated arms embargo, hold off on military support to the warring parties and push them to reach a full cease-fire, German and U.N. leaders said.