Shoukry Heads for Athens for Talks on Situation in Eastern Med.

On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry left for Athens at an official invitation of his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias to participate in a ministerial meeting on conditions in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.

In a press release, the Foreign Ministry said that Shoukry is scheduled to hold talks with a number of foreign ministers to discuss boosting bilateral cooperation and a host of regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Earlier today, Shoukry held a meeting with Mohamed Taher Siala, the minister of foreign affairs of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya, to reiterate Egypt's support for a "Libyan-Libyan" negotiated political solution, and readiness to work with the newly elected interim government.

The Egyptian foreign minister “confirmed [to his Libyan counterpart] the fundamentals of the Egyptian stance towards the sisterly neighbor, Libya, to reach a Libyan-Libyan negotiated political solution that preserves its sovereignty and protects the resources of its people,” a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry read.

The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League (AL) in Cairo, comes days after the UN-led Libyan Political Dialogue Forum chose a new interim prime minister, Abdel-Hamid Dbeibah, and a new head for the country’s Presidential Council, Mohammad Younes Menfi, a step that Egypt has hailed.

The Egyptian foreign ministry expressed to FM Siala Egypt’s readiness to work with the new interim Libyan government until an elected government takes over after the elections, which are scheduled in December.

The Arab foreign ministers tackled during the emergency meeting at the AL means to restore Arabs’ roles in confronting challenges in the region, including the crisis in Libya.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi this week hailed the developments in Libya as “a step in the right direction.”