Cyprus Holds Talks with Rival Libya Administration

Cyprus has stepped up its campaign against the UN-recognised Libyan government's increasingly close military ties with Turkey, hosting talks on Saturday with a leading figure in the rival Libyan administration.

The speaker of Libya's eastern-based parliament, Aguila Saleh, met his Cypriot counterpart Demetris Syllouris, his adviser Hamid al-Safi told reporters in Libya's main eastern city Benghazi.

Saleh urged Cyprus, an EU member state, to withdraw its recognition from the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), because it has "lost its legitimacy and wants to sell Libya to foreigners", Safi said.

The two men also discussed ways to counter two agreements which the GNA signed with Turkey in November that Greek Cypriots strongly oppose.

One provides for direct military intervention by Turkish forces in support of the GNA, a move Ankara says may begin as early as next month.

The other sets a maritime boundary between Libya and Turkey, which has angered Greece and Greek Cypriots as they step up plans to exploit offshore gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Cyprus government has no diplomatic relations with Turkey, which dismisses it as an exclusively Greek Cypriot administration.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey invaded its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking to unite the whole island with Greece.

Ankara is the only government to recognise a breakaway state in the north which Turkish Cypriot leaders declared in 1983.

UN-backed talks on reunifying the island as a bizonal, bi-communal federation collapsed in July 2017 and have not resumed, in part because of deep divisions over offshore gas.