Turkey raps EU

ANKARA: Turkey on Friday criticised the EU’s Operation Irini aimed at halting arms shipments to Libya as "not objective", a day after Nato said it would probe a naval incident with a French ship.

Irini was set up to enforce a United Nations arms embargo to Libya, where the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) faced a major uprising by the forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Turkey strongly supports the GNA in Tripoli, sending sophisticated drones and air defence systems that helped it repel Haftar’s offensive. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Operation Irini failed to meet the demands and concerns of the Tripoli government.

"Does it say anything about the warplanes coming to Libya from Syria? Does it look into arms sent from Abu Dhabi? Does it have a report about France supplying arms to Haftar?" he asked during a joint news conference with Italian counterpart Luigi di Maio. "It’s not objective. Operation Irini does not contribute to a solution to the Libya problem, nor the embargo," Cavusoglu said in Ankara.

Di Maio said Operation Irini was criticised by rival sides in Libya, which "might be what makes it balanced". "Our objective is to guarantee air, naval and satellite structures precisely to be able to control the maritime borders, to control the flow of arms through vessels and across borders," he said.

Nato said on Thursday it has launched an official investigation into a naval incident in the Mediterranean between alliance members France and Turkey. Paris has complained that one of its ships was subjected to radar targeting by Turkish frigates while trying to inspect a cargo vessel believed to be carrying arms to Libya.