Italy Reveals Plans to Send European Mission to Libya

This morning, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi De Maio revealed preparations for a "European mission to Libya" led by the European Union's High Representative for Foreign and Security Affairs, as well as the foreign ministers of European countries.

The Italian minister stressed the necessity of committing to a political solution in the Libyan crisis.

Yesterday, the European Union stressed in a statement that establishing a dialogue is the only way to find a political solution based on the United Nations plan in Libya, adding that there is no military solution to the Libyan crisis.

Brussels also affirmed its support for the Berlin track to find a political solution to the Libyan crisis, and an official statement said: "The participants in the Berlin conference must commit to working towards a comprehensive political solution that guarantees the interests of the Libyans and the sovereignty of Libya."

Meanwhile, Al Arabiya News Network quoted a source from the General Command of the Libyan National Army (LNA) saying that the Libyan Commander, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, will visit Greece in the coming days to discuss the MOU signed between Turkey and the Al-Wefaq Government in Tripoli which dictates demarcation of maritime borders and the strengthening of military cooperation.

Earlier, Greece strongly opposed the MOU.

The source pointed out that Haftar's talks will focus on discussing options for responding to this MOU and the recent Turkish escalation in Libya, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened, two days ago to provide more military support to Tripoli government headed by Fayez Al-Sarraj in Libya, despite the growing international rejection for MOU.

The Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dundas, visited last Sunday the city of Benghazi, and met with Libyan officials, including Field Marshal Haftar, and discussed with them the bilateral relations and the MOU signed between Erdogan and Al-Sarraj before he went to Egypt and then to Cyprus for the same purpose.

Israel joined the opposition states today, as Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that his country opposes the MOU. Cyprus also announced earlier that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed the Cypriot president a few days ago that the maritime agreement was "illegal".

Netanyahu is scheduled to go to Athens within days to coordinate plans with Greece and Cyprus to build an undersea pipeline to export gas from Israel to Europe.