European powers condemn Turkish plans to send troops to Libya

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy warned of the "escalation of violence" in Libya and said the EU rejects Turkish plans to send troops to the North African country. Turkey intervening with military personnel would "increase the external interference" in Libya's conflict, they said.

Reuters

TheEuropean Union’s top diplomat and the foreign ministers of Britain,France, Germany and Italy condemned on Jan. 7 Turkey’s plans tosend military experts and trainers to Libya, saying foreigninterference there was exacerbating instability.

Afterpostponing a trip to Tripoli over safety concerns, the ministers andEU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell held talks in Brussels to callfor a ceasefire as Libya’s internationally recognized governmentstruggled to fend off a military offensive on its power base in thecapital.

“Continuingoutside interference is fuelling the crisis,” the ministers andBorrell said in their joint statement released after the meeting.

Inremarks to reporters, Borrell said: “It is obvious that this made areference to the Turkish decision to intervene with their troops inLibya, which is something that we reject.”

Turkeywill send military experts and technical teams to support Libya’sinternationally recognized government, Foreign Minister MevlütÇavuşoğlu said on Jan. 6, a day after President Recep TayyipErdoğan said Turkish military units were moving to Tripoli.

Turkeyis nominally a candidate to join the EU, though accession talks havelong stalled due to disagreements over human rights, Cyprus and otherissues.

TheEU talks were to have taken place in Libya but the Tripoli governmentasked for them to be postponed, according to two EU diplomats.

Europeand the United States face being sidelined in Libya by Turkey andRussia, which are taking a bigger role in the conflict there. Libyahas been in turmoil since veteran ruler Muammar Gaddafi’s fall dueto an uprising in 2011.

Turkeysupports the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), whileRussia backs eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar, whose forceshold much of the country’s east and south including its second cityBenghazi. They are making a renewed attempt to take Tripoli.

“Thereis a proxy war under way. All interferences have to stop. There arecountries that interfere with a civil war, turning it into a proxywar,” Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told reporters inBrussels before traveling to Turkey to meet his Turkish counterpartÇavuşoğlu.

TheEU had hoped to send a diplomatic mission to Libya to train Libyanofficials and build up institutions in support of the GNA, but thathas been deemed too dangerous for now, diplomats said.

DiMaio, along with the Egyptian, French, Greek and Cypriot foreignministers, are due to discuss their next steps in Cairo on Jan. 8,the same day that Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are toinaugurate a natural gas pipeline running between their countries viathe Black Sea.