Arab League opposes ‘interference in Libya’ after Turkey accords

CAIRO; The Arab League called on Tuesday for efforts to "prevent foreign interference" in Libya in the wake of military and maritime agreements signed by Turkey with the UN-recognised government in Tripoli.

Permanent representatives of the pan-Arab organisation, in a meeting at its Cairo headquarters requested by Egypt, passed a resolution "stressing the necessity to prevent interference that could contribute to facilitating the arrival of foreign extremists in Libya".

They also expressed "serious concern over the military escalation further aggravating the situation in Libya and which threatens the security and stability of neighbouring countries and the entire region".

On Monday, the UN’s Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame, said the deals signed by Turkey and the Tripoli government represented an "escalation" of the conflict wracking the North African country.

Libya has been mired in conflict since a Nato-backed uprising in 2011 toppled and killed dictator Moamer Qadhafi, with rival administrations in the east and the west vying for power.

In November, Ankara signed a security and military cooperation deal and also inked a maritime jurisdiction agreement with the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital.

In addition, Turkey is preparing to hold a vote in parliament on deploying troops in support of the GNA which is battling forces of eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar, who is backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Egypt, in a letter sent to the United Nations last week, said it considers the Ankara-Tripoli agreements "void and without legal effect", adding that foreign military involvement in Libya amounted to a violation of a UN arms embargo in force since the uprising.

Turkey has said it will seek parliamentary support for sending troops to Libya, and senior Turkish sources have said Ankara is also considering sending allied Syrian fighters as part of the deployment.

A statement issued by the Arab League’s council warned of “the gravity of taking any unilateral steps ... in a manner that allows foreign military interventions and contributes to the escalation and prolongation of the conflict.”

“Regional interventions that help among other things in facilitating the transfer of foreign extremist fighters from other regional conflict zones to Libya” should be prevented, it said.

Egypt has been flexing its diplomatic muscles since Turkey signed two accords with the Tripoli government last month, one on security and military cooperation and the other on boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean.

Both sides in Libya have received foreign air support, mainly through drones. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara will materialize its two agreements with the Libyan government on defense and maritime rights next year, a few days ahead of a parliament vote on deploying troops to the North African country.

Erdogan’s comment came on Tuesday, just a day after the Turkish government sent to parliament a bill authorizing troop deployment to Libya.

“The Memorandum of Understanding on Security and Military Cooperation and the Memorandum of Understanding on Delimitation of the Maritime Jurisdiction Areas between Turkey and Libya brought about gains of great strategic importance for our country,” the Turkish president said in his New Year message. Ankara signed the security and military cooperation accords with Libya last month, angering a camp that has been laying claims to power in the country.

Since 2014, Libya has been divided between two rival camps: one based in the eastern city of Tobruk, and the other, the internationally-recognized government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, in the capital, Tripoli.

A renegade general, Khalifa Haftar, is the self-proclaimed commander of an array of militia groups and apparently supports the eastern camp.

In April, Haftar’s forces launched an offensive to capture Tripoli. Despite intense and deadly clashes between the two sides, Haftar has so far failed to achieve his objective, and his offensive has stalled outside the capital.

On Saturday, Haftar’s forces seized a Turkish ship, but released it after searching it for weapons.

Ankara says it is determined to back the Libyan government against Haftar’s militia and restore stability to Libya. The Turkish parliament has already approved the bilateral security and maritime accords.

The Libyan government has also ratified the agreements. But the Turkish parliament needs to issue a separate mandate for troop deployment to Turkey. On Tuesday, Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop called an extraordinary meeting of the parliament on January 2 to vote on the motion.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s biggest opposition party, objected to the bill on Monday.

However, Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), another major party in the parliament that is allied to the AKP, together have sufficient votes to pass the deployment motion.