Turkey Insists on Keeping its Forces Deployed in Libya
Arab World
Ankara - Saeed Abdulrazek
Turkey renewed on Wednesday its insistence on keeping its forces deployed in Libya, refusing to view them as foreign troops that need to be withdrawn in line with the country’s ceasefire agreement. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar held talks on Tuesday with Chief of General Staff Mohammed Ali Haddad on the sidelines of the International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF 2021) in Istanbul. The Turkish Defense Ministry said talks focused on bilateral and regional issues and security and military cooperation between their countries. Akar stressed that his country’s troops were not a foreign force deployed in Libya. They will remain there as part of Ankara’s support to its Libyan brothers and their “just cause”, according to the view that Libya belongs to Libyans, he added. The international community has been pressing Turkey to pull out its forces, as well as the more than 10,000 Syrian mercenaries, it had dispatched to Libya to prop up the former Government of National Accord (GNA) that was headed by Fayez al-Sarraj. In November 2019, Ankara had signed with the GNA a military and security cooperation agreement that allowed it to send troops and tens of thousands of Syrian mercenaries to the North African country. They also signed a contentious maritime border demarcation deal. Some of these foreign forces have been withdrawn in wake of the ceasefire agreement that was struck in October 2020. Meanwhile, head of the High Council of State Khalid al-Mishri declared this week that the Turkish forces were deployed in the country “through clear Libyan will”. Speaking to a Libyan television channel based in Istanbul, he remarked: “We completely reject criticism to agreements signed with Turkey.”
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3140161/turkey-insists-keeping-its-forces-deployed-libya
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