A security deal between Turkey and Libya does not include a clause for Turkey to deploy troops there, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wedne
A security deal between Turkey and Libya does not include a clause for Turkey to deploy troops there, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, after President Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara could send forces if requested by Tripoli.
Two weeks ago Libya’s internationally recognised government and Turkey signed an expanded security and military accord, and a memorandum on maritime boundaries.
Erdogan said this week that, following the security and military deal, Turkey could send troops to Libya if the Tripoli-based government of Fayez al-Serraj requested it. Such a move would not violate a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, he said, and Turkey would not “seek the permission of anyone.”
Cavusoglu said the new deal focused mainly on training.
“The security deal does not include any clauses on sending troops. We had similar agreements in the past, this is just an updated accord. There is no deployment of troops,” he told a news conference in Ankara.
“However, our president has said that we can evaluate this if such a request comes our way,” he said.
Libya has been divided since 2014 into rival military and political camps in the capital Tripoli and the east. Turkey has backed Serraj’s Tripoli-based government, while forces led by Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya, the Libyan National Army (LNA), have received support from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
In June, the LNA said they had cut all ties with Turkey and that all Turkish commercial flights or ships trying to access Libya would be treated as hostile. Diplomats also say Ankara has supplied drones and trucks to Serraj’s forces.