Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and Chief of Staff General Yasar Guler were in Tripoli on Monday to 'observe the operations' under the military cooperation deal with Libya [Anadolu]
Posted on 08/18/2020 2:44:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Turkey and Qatar have reiterated their support for Libya's internationally recognised government during a trip by their defence chiefs to the capital, Tripoli, where Germany's foreign minister also paid an unexpected visit...
The country has been split since 2014 between factions based in the east and west, and regional powers have aligned themselves with the competing sides.
While Turkey and its regional ally Qatar support the GNA, forces in the east led by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar have received backing from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia.
"We believe that we will achieve the wanted results by supporting our Libyan brothers in their just cause," Hulusi Akar, Turkish defence minister, said in Tripoli on Monday...
Turkey signed a military accord with the GNA late last year, as well as a memorandum of understanding on maritime boundaries, that rattled its rivals in the eastern Mediterranean...
Previous attempts to secure a ceasefire and a political deal in Libya - including at an international conference in Germany's capital, Berlin, in January - have stalled. An oil blockade imposed by Haftar's forces has cost the country billions of dollars in lost revenue.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who met his Libyan counterpart but not the Turkish or Qatari delegations, said the process started in Berlin remained the framework for resolving the conflict, and backed calls for a demilitarised zone around Sirte.
"We see a deceptive calm in Libya right now. Both sides and their international allies are continuing to arm the country on a massive scale and are sticking to preconditions for a ceasefire," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and Chief of Staff General Yasar Guler were in Tripoli on Monday to 'observe the operations' under the military cooperation deal with Libya [Anadolu]
The eastern branch of the Central Bank of Libya based in Beida announced yesterday that it has started to collect the necessary data regarding the problems faced by local banks with Turkish foreign Letters of Guarantee. The CBL said that it had already begun to collect the necessary data to be provided by commercial banks within its scope on the problem. It has set a deadline of seven days for local banks to send information on stalled transactions and send it to its relevant department.Eastern CBL to investigate Libyan banks’ problems with Turkish letters of guarantee by Sami Zaptia, 18 August 2020
The Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter, organized a major celebration on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the founding of an armed forces for Libya on Aug. 10 in the Abu Rawash area west of the Egyptian capital Cairo.
Although the LNA is less than a decade old -- founded in 2011 after forces forces aligned to the National Transitional Council defeated the army of Moammar al-Gadhafi -- Hifter has sought to present it as the only legitimate armed forces, and thus the successor of the Libyan army founded in 1940 to liberate the country from the Italian occupation.
The ceremony was attended by LNA spokesperson Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Mesmari, Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdul Hadi al-Hawaij, LNA director of the Moral Guidance Department Brig. Gen. Khaled al-Mahjoub, Libyan parliament member Mohammed al-Abani, a number of Libyan tribal sheikhs, several figures affiliated with the Egyptian Ministry of Defense and various Egyptian parliament members.
In a speech during the celebration, Mesmari stressed the need for Turkey to leave Libya's political and military scene, indicating that this commemoration is a "clear message to the conspirators and to the colonialists that [the Libyans] will not neglect their land and their dignity nor the Arab world."Why did Hifter's forces host Libyan army celebration in Cairo? | A correspondent in Egypt | Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Fanta, Sprite, Pepsi, regular water, sparkling water, oil, vinegar, salt, pepper.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the conflicts in Libya and Syria in a telephone call on Monday.
The Kremlin said that the two leaders, focused mainly on the crisis in Libya, where they back opposing sides, highlighting the need to make real steps towards a sustainable ceasefire.
The Turkish presidency said Putin and Erdogan also discussed a dispute between Turkey and Greece over energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, saying they "emphasised the importance of continuing close cooperation and dialogue."
The Kremlin said they agreed to step up anti-terrorism efforts in Syria, after reports on Monday that a Turkish-Russian joint patrol was hit by a blast in the Idlib region.
The Turkish presidency said Putin and Erdogan agreed to continue dialogue through diplomatic and military channels on Syria. [Reuters]Putin, Erdogan discuss conflicts in Libya, Syria in phone call | Tuesday, August 18, 2020 | Kathimerini English Edition
Hmmm, Turkey and Qatar are supporting one of the two factions in Libya. That makes it real easy to pick a side to support... which would be the side they are not supporting.
Huge improvement, used to be a basket of raw eggs and fresh olives, and complimentary ammo. :^)
If I read the map correctly, Qatar and Turkey are usually together at least in supporting Iran vs UAE/Saudi-Arabia/Israel.
Qatar will begin sending military advisers to Libya to bolster the forces of the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, the body's deputy defence minister said on Monday.
The comments came during a visit to the GNA by the defence ministers of Turkey and Qatar. They discussed increasing their military help to the government in Tripoli despite international condemnation of a foreign presence there.
Turkey has been providing troops, Syrian mercenaries it has trained and weapons to the GNA since January.
Ankara's interference in the war has been heavily criticised by the European Union, especially France, and other countries including Egypt, Cyprus, Bahrain and the UAE...
Qatar agreed to send military advisers [foreign mercenaries?] to train Libyan forces under the GNA and provide places for Libyan recruits at Turkish and Qatari military colleges, Libya's Al Ahrar TV reported...
Turkey has been assisting GNA forces in their fight against the Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, which is aligned with the House of Representatives' administration in eastern Libya.Qatar to send soldiers to Libya to support GNA, says official | The National | Tuesday, August 18, 2020
:^) Well, yeah.
The documents, which Fox News reported had been verified by German intelligence officials, showed in detail how the royal family member had supported Hezbollah since 2017.
The contractor said that Qatar's ambassador to Belgium and Nato, Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Khulaifi, tried to cover up the royal family's role in financing Hezbollah with a bribe of €750,000 (Dh3.2 million/$891,100)...
He said at a meeting with Mr Al Khulaifi in Brussels last year, the ambassador was heard to say "the Jews are our enemies"...
Ms Goulet said Qatar had gained a "bad reputation" because of its practices, funding malign groups besides Hezbollah that included the Muslim Brotherhood...
The dossier said two Qatari charities also supplied cash to Hezbollah in Beirut "under the guise of food and medicine".
They were the Sheikh Eid bin Mohammed Al Thani Charitable Association and the Education Above All Foundation...
Hezbollah was founded by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Lebanon in 1982 as a proxy militia for Tehran.
It retains close links with Iran and depends on it for financial support.Qatar's funding for Hezbollah threatened US troops, report claims | Callum Paton | August 6, 2020 | The National
In the summer of 2015 Mohammed bin Salman, then Saudi defence minister and third in line to the throne, turned his country's foreign policy on its head and gave a covert green light for Russia's intervention in Syria, according to a lawsuit by a former top intelligence official.
In his complaint filed in a federal court in Washington, Saad Aljabri alleges that the abrupt switch of course by the man who is now Saudi Arabia's crown prince alarmed the then CIA director, John Brennan, who met Aljabri in July and August of 2015 to pass on a rebuke from the Obama administration...
Aljabri said the meetings with Brennan cost him his job as the second most powerful man in Saudi intelligence and his country's liaison with the CIA. He later fled Saudi Arabia and is now living in hiding in Canada, where he alleges the crown prince tried to have him killed by a Saudi death squad, shortly after the murder of the Saudi dissident and journalist, Jamal Khashoggi...
The claim that Prince Mohammed secretly invited Russia to intervene in Syria at a time when Bashar al-Assad was close to falling, is an explosive one. The Saudi monarchy was ostensibly supporting anti-Assad rebels, and Russian bombing of rebel-held cities in support of Assad has since killed tens of thousands of Syrian civilians.
Western diplomats say that soon after Prince Mohammed became defence minister, with the ascent of his father to the Saudi throne following the death of King Abdullah in January 2015, he was strongly influenced by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, another young moderniser with radical ideas.
This week Sheikh Mohammed caught the Arab world by surprise by striking a US-brokered agreement to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.Saudi strongman 'encouraged' Russia intervention in Syria, lawsuit claims | The Guardian | Julian Borger in Washington | Sun 16 Aug 2020 | Last modified on Mon 17 Aug 2020
And the Russians fell for it. And since Brennan and Obama were against it, who should be for it?
I don’t know what the proper approach and policy should have been, but Obama’s and Hillary’s toppling of Qaddafi with no follow-up policy or plan has left one heckuva vacuum and one helluva mess.
BTW, Al Jazeera... is Qatari
Qatar plays both ends against the middle. This comes from being a small rich country surrounded by demonstrably monstrous neighbors like Iran and Iraq. The best way to handle the bribes and payments to Hezbollah is to kill the go-betweens carrying it out, then drop of their Jew-hating corrupt lying princes to really get the message across. It's faster than waiting for Iran's mullahcracy to fall.
Both of them should be dropped off in Benghazi without entourage.
I would love to see that!
So does Germany. And most, if not all of the EU. Which is how INSTEX came about.
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