Turkish and Qatari Defence Ministers travel to Libya "without notice"
Libya is the scene of a war of interests. The conflict that rages in this oil-rich country has become a competition to see who will take control of the much prized black gold. A report by the Council on Foreign Relations warns that Turkey's presence in the North African nation, where it supports the National Accord Government (NAG), is due to the country's desire to exert greater influence in the region. "In particular, Ankara is seeking to expand its control of energy reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean and hopes to regain some construction contracts it lost after the fall of Gaddafi in 2011," they said.
Ankara has played a fundamental role in the conflict that Libya is suffering as a result of the agreement signed last November between Turkey and the Tripoli-based National Accord Government (NAG), led by Fayez Sarraj. 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. In this complex scenario, Qatar's Defence Minister Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah and his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, have travelled to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, "without warning".
The two ministers will meet with several officials of the Government of National Accord, according to local media reports, which have stressed that the holders of the defence portfolio will negotiate the final equipment for the new naval base in Khums, which is located between Misrata and Tripoli. According to the newspaper Al Ain, "among the objectives of this visit is to organize a new military and political scenario". These talks will also include, according to this media, a dossier to develop the air base of Uqba bin Nafi, in the region of Al Watiya and to provide it with advanced military equipment.
Haftar is supported by Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Russia and France; while the Tripoli government, backed by the Muslim Brotherhood and internationally recognized by the United Nations or Italy, receives military aid from Turkey and Qatar.
The leaders of Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy and France among other countries involved in the Libyan powder keg met last January in Berlin and agreed to stop the military and political interference of foreign powers in the North African country. Ankara has gone against this decision and has continued sending military material, as well as mercenaries from different nationalities to swell the ranks of the GNA. So far, the country of the Bosphorus has transferred more than 20,000 Syrian mercenaries to Libya, in addition to 10,000 people of other nationalities, according to Rami Abdul Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights.
On the other hand, the Libyan National Army announced on Monday that it had monitored the deployment of an air defense system by Turkey in many areas in the west of the country, especially in the Al-Wattiya base, which was controlled by Turkish mercenaries, according to the information to which Sky News has had access.
In 2016, the House of Representatives refused to confirm the National Accord Government, causing a duality between the House of Representatives in Tobruk, chaired by Aguila Saleh and supported by the Libyan National Army, and the National Accord Government in Tripoli. The coveted black gold also suffers from the consequences of this war. The head of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the Libyan House of Representatives has announced that the reopening of the ports "is linked to the creation of guarantees and mechanisms for the equitable distribution of oil revenues among the three Libyan regions (Cyrenaica, Tripoli and Fezzan)".
In an interview with the daily Asharq Al-Awsat, the leader of this body spoke of his support for the proposal of the president of the Libyan parliament that the city of Sirte be the seat of the next unified Libyan authority until parliamentary elections are held in the country. "The city, according to the proposal, will be the seat of the work of any national unity government that is agreed upon, since the capital, Tripoli, is controlled by armed militias, which makes the work of any government there impossible," he said.
In this spiral of instability are the thousands of civilians who every day are victims of a large number of crimes against humanity, such as indiscriminate bombings, and who have been forced to leave their homes. Meanwhile, COVID-19 continues to spread in a country already devastated by war. The Libyan National Center for Disease Control said on Monday that it had recorded 8 deaths and 434 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the death toll from this pathogen to 153 cases. The number of people infected, the centre added, is 7,086.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Programme have launched a programme to help refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya deal with this health crisis. "Most refugees in Libya live in urban areas and depend on daily work to support themselves. However, they have lost their jobs in recent months due to strict restrictions on movement," they said in a joint statement, indicating that the price of food and other commodities has risen dramatically.
"The cost of a food basket that would cover a family's basic needs has increased by an average of 26.6 percent since the imposition of the COVID-19 restrictions in March. Many refugees say they can only afford to eat one basic meal a day," they have lamented.