LIBYA’S UN-RECOGNISED GOVERNMENT ACCEPTS TURKISH OFFER FOR MILITARY SUPPORT

Thu 19 December 2019:

Libya’s United Nations-recognised government has accepted an offer from Turkey for military and logistical support as it seeks to repel an offensive led by forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar, sources say.

The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) on Thursday moved to put in action a security accord brokered with Ankara in November, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed reported from the Libyan capital, citing sources withing the GNA.

“We are getting news from sources with the GNA in Tripoli after a very important meeting between government officials and military commanders … involved with defending the capital from Haftar’s forces,” Abdelwahed said.

“They say they are now putting in action the memorandum of understanding that was sealed between the UN-recognised Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to entail military and security cooperation,” he added.

Last month, the GNA and Turkey signed a deal on maritime boundaries, angering Greece, and another pact on military cooperation.

Rival administrations

Libya splintered into a patchwork of competing power bases following the NATO-backed overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

It has been split into rival eastern and western administrations since 2014, with the GNA currently controlling Tripoli, situated in northwestern Libya, and a parallel administration holding the east of the oil-rich country, supported by Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).

Haftar’s forces in April launched a campaign to wrestle control of the capital in April but have been unable to break through the GNA’s defences. Last week, Haftar said that a “decisive battle” to capture the city would commence imminently.

Turkish officials have previously said Ankara may send troops to Libya if the GNA requested it, but Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday that no such request had been made yet.

On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government was ready to help the GNA.

“We will speed up the process between Turkey and Libya. We told them that we are always ready to help if they need it. From military and security cooperation, to steps taken regarding our maritime rights – we are ready,” he was cited as saying by broadcaster NTV.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from Istanbul, meanwhile said on Thursday it would be a “while before we Turkish troops on the ground”.

“There is a whole process involved … once the agreement between Tripoli and Ankara is ratified by the Turkish Parliament, everything will be hinged on a formal request from the GNA to ask for the deployment of the troops and then that has to go back to the Turkish parliament for a vote,” he said.

“And it is only after Parliament gives a mandate on troop numbers and the work they will be doing in Tripoli, that they will be allowed to be deployed.”