Greece’s beef with Libya

Why Greece and Turkey support opposite sides in the Libyan civil war, and how Turkish intervention in that conflict has created a stalemate

By accommodative Greek diplomatic standards it was strident: foreign minister Nikos Dendias on November 17 refused to disembark at Tripoli’s airport for a scheduled meeting with Libya’s president, Mohammed al-Menfi. Instead, he ordered the pilot to take off again.

Dendias had been told that Libya’s foreign minister, Leila al-Mangoush, had arrived at the airport to greet him. Greece had requested that he avoid any meeting with her.

“Ms. Mangoush, through her presence, tried to force me to meet with her, leading me to cut short our visit to Tripoli,” Dendias later told reporters.