Libya’s eastern authorities recently expelled a senior European delegation in a move analysts say was meant to send a message: the unrecognised administration backed by military leader Khalifa Haftar cannot be ignored.On July 8, an EU commissioner and ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta were in Libya to discuss irregular migration from the North African country.Their visit was divided in two, as is Libya, which is still grappling with the aftermath of the armed conflict and political chaos that followed the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.The delegation first visited the capital Tripoli, seat of the internationally recognised Libyan government of Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah.They then travelled to Benghazi, in the east, where a rival administration backed by Haftar and his clan is based, and with whom the EU has generally avoided direct contact.Almost immediately, a reported disagreement prompted the eastern authorities to accuse the European delegation of a “flagrant breach of diplomatic norms”, ordering the visiting dignitaries to leave.In Brussels, the European Commission admitted a “protocol issue”.Tarek Megerisi, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said the scene at the airport “was a calculated move”.Haftar was playing to EU fears of irregular migration in order “to generate de facto European recognition”, and thus “broaden relations with Europe away from just engagement with him as a local military leader”. Turning the delegation away showed that declining to engage with the eastern civilian administration was no longer an option.- ‘Punish Athens’ -The complex situation in Libya has required unusual diplomacy.European governments recognise and work with the Tripoli-based government and not the eastern administration, but still hold contact with Haftar’s military forces.In their visit earlier this month, the European commissioner and ministers were meant to meet with eastern military officials.But once at the Benghazi airport, they saw “there were people there that we had not agreed to meet”, a European official in Brussels told journalists on condition of anonymity.”We had to fly back,” the official said, adding that “of course” it was linked to recognition of the eastern government.Claudia Gazzini, a Libya expert at the International Crisis Group, said she did not believe “it was a premeditated incident”.But “the question does present itself as to why” ministers from the eastern government were at the airport in the first place, and why Haftar would let it play out the way it did, she said.”We can’t completely rule out that there was some particular issue or bilateral disagreement with one of the countries represented in the delegation,” Gazzini added.Libya expert Jalel Harchaoui suggested Greece may have been the target.On July 6, two days before the axed visit, “the Greek foreign minister had come to demand concessions on migration and maritime (issues) without offering any tangible incentives”, Harchaoui said.Despite Haftar’s personal involvement, the July 6 visit “had yielded nothing”, added the expert.Then, on July 8, “a Greek representative — this time as part of an EU delegation — wanted to negotiate on the same day with the rival Tripoli government, placing the two governments on an equal footing”, he said.This was “an affront in Benghazi’s view”, Harchaoui said, and the administration wanted to “punish Athens”.- Legitimacy -To Harchaoui, the diplomatic flap was a sign not to “underestimate” the Haftars’ foreign policy.”The Haftar family is an absolutely essential actor” in tackling the influx of migrants or, for example, advancing energy projects, due to its key role in securing Libya’s eastern coast, said Harchaoui.The message delivered at the Benghazi airport “is clear: take the eastern faction seriously”, he added.Harchaoui said that the Haftars, already “rich in cash and strong” in terms of strategic assets, have recently increased efforts to “consolidate their legitimacy”.Haftar himself was hosted in February by French President Emmanuel Macron, and in May by Russia’s Vladimir Putin.And Haftar’s son, Saddam, recently visited the United States, Turkey, Italy and Niger.Even Ankara, which has provided support for the Tripoli-based government in repelling attacks from the east, “is now seeking to further profit off the Haftars through things like construction projects”, said Megerisi.He added that Turkey also has wider geopolitical ambitions, hoping to see the Haftars endorse a maritime border agreement in the eastern Mediterranean, which Tripoli had already signed but Athens regards as illegal.

Iran confirmed fresh talks with European powers to be held on Friday in Istanbul, the country’s state media reported, the first since the United States attacked Iranian nuclear facilities a month ago.Iranian diplomats will meet counterparts from Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, after the trio warned that sanctions could be reimposed on Tehran if it does return to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme. Western nations and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has consistently denied.”In response to the request of European countries, Iran has agreed to hold a new round of talks,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghai, as quoted by state TV on Monday.The subject of the talks will be Iran’s nuclear programme, it added.A German diplomatic source had told AFP on Sunday the E3 were in contact with Tehran and said “Iran must never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon”. “That is why Germany, France and the United Kingdom are continuing to work intensively in the E3 format to find a sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear programme,” the source said.Israel launched on June 13 a wave of surprise strikes on its regional nemesis, targeting key military and nuclear facilities.The United States launched its own set of strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.- Kremlin meeting -Iran and the United States had held several rounds of nuclear negotiations through Omani mediators before Israel launched its 12-day war against Iran.However, US President Donald Trump’s decision to join Israel in striking Iranian nuclear facilities effectively ended the talks.The E3 countries last met with Iranian representatives in Geneva on June 21 — just one day before the US strikes.Also Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a surprise meeting in the Kremlin with Ali Larijani, top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader on nuclear issues.Larijani “conveyed assessments of the escalating situation in the Middle East and around the Iranian nuclear programme”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the unannounced meeting.Putin had expressed Russia’s “well-known positions on how to stabilise the situation in the region and on the political settlement of the Iranian nuclear programme”, he added.Moscow has a cordial relationship with Iran’s clerical leadership and provides crucial backing for Tehran but did not swing forcefully behind its partner even after the United States joined Israel’s bombing campaign.- Snapback mechanism -Iran and world powers struck a deal in 2015 called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which placed significant restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.But the hard-won deal began to unravel in 2018, during Trump’s first presidency, when the United States walked away from it and reimposed sanctions on Iran.European countries have in recent days threatened to trigger the deal’s “snapback” mechanism, which allows the reimposition of sanctions in the event of non-compliance by Iran.After a call with his European counterparts on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the Western allies had “absolutely no moral (or) legal grounds” for reactivating the snapback sanctions.He elaborated in a post to social media Sunday. “Through their actions and statements, including providing political and material support to the recent unprovoked and illegal military aggression of the Israeli regime and the US… the E3 have relinquished their role as ‘Participants’ in the JCPOA,” said Araghchi.That made any attempt to reinstate the terminated UN Security Council resolutions “null and void”, he added. “Iran has shown that it is capable of defeating any delusional ‘dirty work’ but has always been prepared to reciprocate meaningful diplomacy in good faith,” Araghchi wrote.However, the German source said Sunday that “if no solution is reached over the summer, snapback remains an option for the E3”.Ali Velayati, an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last week there would be no new nuclear talks with the United States if they were conditioned on Tehran abandoning its uranium enrichment activities.burs-sbk/jj/tc/mtp