French president Emmanuel Macron accused his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of breaking the promise and meddling in the Libya conflict.
“I want to express my concerns with regard to the behavior of Turkey at the moment, which is in complete contradiction with what President Erdoğan committed to at the Berlin conference”, Macron said during a meeting with Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on 29 January in Paris.
“We have seen in recent days Turkish warships accompanied by Syrian mercenaries arriving on Libyan soil. This is an explicit and serious infringement of what was agreed in Berlin. It’s a broken promise”, Macron added.
Russia and Turkey have recently been mediating a ceasefire in Berlin. They both back rival sides in the conflict. Libya is divided in two rival governments, the UN-recognized GNA, supported by Turkey, and commander Khalifa Haftar’s LNA, who is backed by Russia, Egypt, France, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Recently, Haftar launched a surprise offensive, with his forces advancing east of Misrata city and seizing the town of Abugrein, which was under the control of the GNA.
“Over the last ten days, numerous cargo and other flights have been observed landing at Libyan airports in the western and eastern parts of the country providing the parties with advanced weapons, armored vehicles, advisers and fighters”, the UN mission to Libya said. UN chief Antonio Guterres previously warned that Libya’s civil war has become a playground for foreign forces and threatens to spill over into the neighboring regions.
Macron also condemned the maritime border deal between Turkey and GNA: “France supports Greece and Cyprus in terms of respect for their sovereign rights, condemning Turkey’s challenge of these. We repeated our concerns and condemned unequivocally the Turkey-Libya agreement”.
Mitsotakis added that “the only way to resolve differences in the east Mediterranean is through international law”.
Macron accuses Erdogan of breaking promises on Libya
EPA-EFE/CHRISTOPHE PETIT TESSON
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) talks with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (L) after their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, 29 January 2020.
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