Samy Magdy
Libya’s high diplomat has known as for the departure of overseas forces and mercenaries from the North African nation because it heads towards elections later this 12 months.
Libya’s high diplomat Monday known as for the departure of overseas forces and mercenaries from the North African nation because it heads towards elections later this 12 months.
Najla al-Manqoush, overseas minister of Libya’s interim authorities, urged Turkey to implement U.N. Safety Council resolutions demanding the repatriation of greater than 20,000 overseas fighters and mercenaries from Libya.
Her remarks got here at a joint information convention with Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. He visited the capital of Tripoli with Protection Minister Hulusi Akar and different high army and intelligence officers.
“We call on (Turkey) to take steps to implement all the provisions of … the Security Council resolutions and to cooperate together to expel all foreign forces and mercenaries from the Libyan territories,” she mentioned.
The remarks had been seen as a rebuke to Turkey, which has deployed troops and Syrian mercenaries to combat together with Tripoli militias since forces of army commander Khalifa Hifter launched their assault on the capital in 2019.
Cavusoglu responded by saying that Turkish forces had been in Libya as a part of a coaching settlement reached with a earlier Libya administration. “There are those who equate our legal presence … with the foreign mercenary groups that fight in this country for money,” he mentioned.
The Libyan overseas minister may face criticism from pro-Turkey Libyans for ideological causes and in addition others in Tripoli who nonetheless worry a brand new assault from eastern-based forces, mentioned Jalel Harchaoui, senior Libya researcher on the Geneva-based World Initiative In opposition to Transnational Organized Crime.
The departure of a whole lot of Turkish troops “is by all means a hard thing to implement,” he mentioned. “Very difficult for Tripoli — because a very large (mercenary) mission is still in central Libya and could help (Hifter) march west again. And very difficult for Turkey — because it has spent untold amounts on making sure its presence in Turkey has been carefully concerned in Libya. It backed the U.N.-recognized Authorities of Nationwide Accord primarily based in Tripoli in opposition to Hifter’s forces. Turkey despatched army provides and fighters to Libya serving to to tilt the steadiness of energy in favor of the GNA.
Turkey additionally signed an settlement with the Tripoli-based authorities delineating the maritime boundaries between the 2 international locations within the Mediterranean. That triggered protests from Greece and Cyprus. Each international locations denounced the settlement saying it was a critical breach of worldwide legislation that disregarded the rights of different jap Mediterranean international locations.
Libya was plunged into chaos when a NATO-backed rebellion in 2011 toppled longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The oil-rich nation was lately break up between rival east- and west-based administrations, every backed by totally different armed teams and overseas governments.
Libya’s interim authorities, which took energy in March, is tasked with bringing collectively a rustic that has been torn aside by civil struggle for almost a decade. It additionally goals to steer Libya by way of a normal election on Dec. 24.
Safety Council diplomats say there are greater than 20,000 overseas fighters and mercenaries in Libya, together with 13,000 Syrians and 11,000 Sudanese, together with Russians and Chadians.
The Safety Council’s 15 member nations agreed in a casual assembly final week that getting the overseas fighters and mercenaries to go house was the one manner ahead, in line with the officers.
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Related Press author Suzan Frazer contributed from Ankara, Turkey.
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Libya urges Turkey ‘cooperation’ over foreign troops pullout
Libya’s new interim government urged Turkey Monday to “cooperate” over the withdrawal of foreign troops and mercenaries from the country, to help bolster a seven-month-old ceasefire.
“We call on Turkey to cooperate with us to put an end to the presence of all foreign forces and mercenaries, in order to preserve the sovereignty” of Libya, Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush said.
Libya’s interim government came into being in March, replacing two rival administrations — one based in Tripoli and the other in the country’s east.
The previous Tripoli-based administration relied heavily on Turkish military backing to repel a 2019-20 offensive by eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, who was in turn backed by the eastern administration and foreign powers ranging from Egypt to Russia.
Both outgoing administrations gave their support to the new interim government, mandated to lead the country to elections in December amid a ceasefire agreed in October.
Mangoush spoke Monday at a press conference alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is visiting Tripoli.
She stressed the “importance of Turkey’s contribution to ending fighting and the stabilisation of the ceasefire throughout the country”.
Cavusoglu for his part criticised those who “suggest… the Turkish presence in Libya is equivalent to that of illegitimate groups”.
Cooperation between Turkey and Libya within the framework of a military accord signed in late 2019 “avoided Libya sinking into civil war,” he contended.
“Our support has opened the way to a ceasefire and the installation of a new unified political executive,” he added.
The establishment of the new government has generated cautious hope that the country can move beyond the conflict and chaos that has entrapped it since the overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
But the continued presence of foreign fighters and mercenaries, estimated by the UN at 20,000, is widely perceived as a threat to the transition process.
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