Libya’s Ambassador to Ankara has voiced confidence regarding military support from Turkey, saying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will “give a helping hand.”
“We believe that His Highness [President Erdogan] will give a helping hand without delay, if [it] was requested from him. We should also mention the historical relation that united the Libyan and Turkish people,” Ambassador Abdurrazaq Mukhtar Abdulgader told the daily Hürriyet in an interview.
“[Sending troops] was not peculiar over the course of history,” the ambassador said, giving the example of the siege of Tripoli in 1551 by Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. He said that back then, the Ottomans, too, paid attention to the call of the Tripoli people.
Erdogan had previously said Turkey could send troops to Libya if the Tripol-based U.N.-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) of Fayez al-Serraj requested it, following a security and military deal between the two countries. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Dec. 14 said that no such request has been made “yet.”
At the same time, Middle East Monitor reports that Egyptian sources revealed, that President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has approved the deployment of Russian-made tanks to Libya to support the forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar against the effects of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).
The Egyptian tanks are similar to those already being used by Haftar’s forces.
The sources further indicated that the Egyptian decision came after “Cairo sensed serious intentions from Ankara of direct military intervention in Libya” in favour of the GNA.
