20 Sep 2020; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey regrets the decision of Head of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez Al-Sarraj to resign from his position, stressing that he has no objection to holding meetings with the Egyptian authorities, Reuters reported.
Speaking to reporters after Friday prayer in Istanbul, Erdogan added: “The warlord Khalifa Haftar will be defeated sooner or later,” adding that Turkey “regrets the decision made by the internationally-recognised Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj to resign by the end of October.”
Erdogan continued: “We have no objection to holding meetings with the Egyptian authorities.”
He asserted that: “Holding intelligence meetings with Egypt is a different matter, and it is possible, but the agreement they made with Greece saddened us.”
Erdogan expressed: “We are ready for dialogue with Greece in a third country or via videoconference. We have absolutely no problem in meeting the Greek prime minister, but the most important question is, what are we going to discuss and in which context will we be meeting?”
The Turkish president stressed that the withdrawal of the Oruc Reis exploration vessel to the port of Antalya is “a well-thought step”.
He confirmed that the vessel will sail again in Eastern Mediterranean waters following the completion of maintenance work.
