The General Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, accused Turkey of direct interference in the battle for Libya. He called for support from Egypt to bring an end to Turkey’s intervention in the country.
According to Al-Arabiya news channel, Haftar stressed the necessity of the withdrawal of Turkish military forces before negotiating with the Government of National Accord (GNA). According to sources, this was during his trip to Cairo on Wednesday evening.
Haftar reiterated his request to lift the arms embargo on the LNA. He also called to activate the Arab Joint Defense Agreement, demanding international monitoring to prevent arms from entering Libya via Turkey.
Cairo informed Haftar of the need to dismantle armed groups in Libya and stop supplying them with weapons. It reiterated Egypt’s position of rejecting foreign interference in Libya, as well as confirming that it would not to allow any threat to the Egyptian-Libyan borders.
Meanwhile, Ankara stressed that it would continue to support the GNA against the LNA. It also suggested sending soldiers to the capital, Tripoli, to provide “military assistance and consulting”. This comes despite the fact that Turkey was among the countries that participated in the Berlin Conference.
A call was made during the conference for an end to foreign intervention in the war-torn country, in addition to enforcing the UN arms embargo.
Haftar has visited Cairo four times since the beginning of the LNA’s military operations in April 2019. He met with President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi in April, May, August and December of the same year.