Turkey strengthens its position in the complex Libyan scenario
Turkey's ambition in Libya knows no bounds. The Eurasian nation has continued in recent weeks with its strategy of increasing its influence in the North African country, devastated by the war that began in 2014, by supporting the Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Fayez Sarraj; at the same time as the international community is calling on the warring parties to resume dialogue and put an end to the escalation of violence.
Ankara announced on Tuesday its decision to stop "for a while" the search for gas and oil off the Greek island of Meis, thus giving a break to the strained relations between this nation and the European Union. However, at the same time, it has intensified its presence in Libya by sending new mercenaries and not only from Syria, as denounced in recent weeks by a report issued by the Pentagon or the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
The Libyan National Army (LNA) has confirmed these theories and has assured this Tuesday night that the country led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan had begun to send mercenaries coming from several non-Syrian nationalities, according to Al Arabiya, who has also indicated that an intelligence team coming from Turkey has landed in the early hours of this Wednesday in Al-Watiya air base. This delegation visited this base for several hours and then returned to the country of the Bosphorus, according to the aforementioned newspaper.
Libyan political analyst Abu Yarub Al-Baraki believes that Erdogan's intention is to turn this place into "a permanent military base in Libya" in order to increase his influence in the region, specifically in countries such as Tunisia and Algeria, which advocate dialogue to find a solution to the Libyan conflict. "Erdogan will have the opportunity to appear on the gas map of the eastern Mediterranean," he said in an interview with Al-Arabiya.
The President of Tunisia, Kaïes Said, received on Tuesday the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia to analyse various issues such as the situation in Libya. Said reiterated his country's interest in trying to "bring together the points of view" of the parties involved in the conflict, reiterating the continued willingness of the nation he presides over to help "find a political agreement" and put an end to this crisis "which has affected the neighbouring countries, particularly Tunisia, in a very negative way". During this meeting, the two leaders concluded that the solution to the Libyan question can only be "peaceful and without any foreign interference", the daily Al Marsad reported.
Talks with other countries - by both sides - to achieve peace in this country have been taking place in recent weeks. The Speaker of the Parliament in Tobruk, Aguila Saleh, met on Wednesday with Jordan's foreign minister to discuss the latest developments in the North African country. For its part, Bahrain has reaffirmed its support for the Egyptian initiative to resolve the Libyan crisis.
In this spiral of instability and uncertainty, Turkey has challenged the European Union in recent weeks by violating the United Nations (UN) arms embargo on the Libyan civil war, and by the constant exchange of threats for control of the eastern Mediterranean waters. Germany plans to send a frigate to the Mediterranean next week to participate in the Irini naval mission, created by the EU to monitor the UN arms embargo against Libya. More than 250 German soldiers could be aboard the frigate Hamburg, which according to German media, would arrive in the area of operations in mid-August. This mission has the authority to carry out inspections on the high seas off the coast of Libya of vessels that there is reason to believe are carrying arms or related materiel to or from Libya.
One of the main objectives of this mission is to stop the flow of arms into Libya, a country devastated by the war between Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, leader of the Libyan National Army (LNA), and Fayez Sarraj, Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA). Ankara has played a decisive role in the conflict that is raging in the country, following the agreement signed last November with the GNA. Within the framework of this security and economic cooperation agreement, the country presided over by Erdogan has intensified its presence in Libya, sending hundreds of mercenaries and dozens of shipments of military material. Germany will send this frigate to the Mediterranean as part of Operation Irini, approximately one month after France temporarily withdrew from the NATO-led maritime security operation due to its disagreements with Turkey, especially regarding the conflict in Libya and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.