France Accuses Turkey of Hostile Acts to Stop Enforcement of Libya Arms Embargo

World

June 17th, 6:36pm

Asharq Al-Awsat

The Turkish national flag hangs in the foreground as drilling vessel Fatih is seen off the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, Turkey October 30, 2018. (Reuters)

France accused Turkey's navy on Wednesday of acting in a "hostile and aggressive" manner towards its NATO allies to prevent them from enforcing a United Nations arms embargo on Libya. In a strongly-worded statement, France's foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll said violations of the embargo, notably by Turkey, were the main obstacles to achieving peace and stability in Libya. She said Turkey’s support for a Government National Accord offensive goes against all efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Libya. Earlier, a French defense ministry official said NATO must not bury its head in the sand with regard to Turkey’s recent behavior towards its allies, accusing the Turkish navy of harassing a French warship on a NATO mission. A senior Turkish official denied the accusation, saying “no such thing” had occurred. NATO defense ministers will hold a virtual meeting this week amid growing tensions between Paris and Ankara. The two allies have traded barbs over the crisis in Libya, accusing each other of supporting opposing sides in the country’s war. Speaking ahead of the meeting, the French defense ministry official said it was time NATO had a frank discussion about Turkey and its conduct - not just in Libya, but other issues such as Ankara buying Russian S-400 defense systems and blocking NATO defense planning for the Baltics and Poland. “We have known complicated moments in the alliance, but we can’t be an ostrich and can’t pretend there isn’t a Turkey problem at NATO. We have to see it, say it and handle it,” said the official, according to Reuters. Calling Turkey’s behavior unacceptable, the official singled out Turkey’s role in Libya, Turkey, which backs the GNA in Tripoli, has secured a foothold in Libya by helping to repel an assault on the capital by the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Khalifa Haftar. The French official said Turkey’s decision to send more weapons and Syrian mercenaries into the country was doing nothing to achieve peace and in fact pushing Russia to increase its involvement. He accused the Turkish navy of using their NATO call signals while accompanying Turkish vessels suspected of breaking a UN arms embargo to deliver weapons to Libya. He cited a case in which he said Turkish naval ships acted aggressively towards a French warship on a NATO mission to check whether the Turkish vessel Cirkin was smuggling arms to Libya. French officials said the Cirkin had switched off its tracking system, masked its ID number and refused to say where it was going. “It was an extremely aggressive act and cannot be the action of an ally who is working within NATO under the command of NATO,” the French defense official said. A senior Turkish official rejected the accusation, saying French forces had sought to search a Turkish vessel in international waters “and this was not permitted”, and that Turkey had taken no provocative or aggressive action to prevent this. “However, we expect allies to show the same understanding and sensitivity towards the Turkish navy and its presence.”

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2339846/france-accuses-turkey-hostile-acts-stop-enforcement-libya-arms-embargo