MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th January, 2020) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have discussed on Sunday the Libyan crisis, having pledged commitment to supporting the North African country's sovereignty, as well as the US-German coordination on challenges in the middle East, the Department of State said in a press release.
Pompeo and Maas met on the sidelines of an international conference on Libya underway in Berlin. Aside from the two Libyan rival administrations, the conference is attended by a number of regional states, the five UN Security Council permanent members, Germany, Turkey, the United Nations, the European Union, and the African Union.
"Secretary Michael R. Pompeo met today with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin. Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Maas discussed ongoing international efforts to support a durable ceasefire, a return to a political process, and an end of foreign interference in Libya. The Secretary and the Foreign Minister pledged to continue strong support for Libyan sovereignty," the press release read.
According to the text, Pompeo and Maas pledge to continue strong support for Libyan sovereignty.
"Secretary Pompeo and Foreign Minister Maas also discussed U.S.-German coordination on a range of global challenges, including Afghanistan, and the need to counter Iran's aggressive and destabilizing actions in the Middle East," the press release read.
On January 5, Iran announced that it would abandon the remaining portion of commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, specifically on acceptable levels of uranium enrichment. The nuclear deal was signed in 2015 by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. The US unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018.
On a separate vector of escalation, Iran conducted airstrikes against US military facilities in Iraq last week in response to the assassination of its top military commander Qasem Soleimani. On January 8, the Iranian forces mistakenly hit a Ukrainian passenger jetliner with close to 180 people on board, having confused it with a US retaliatory missile.
