Turkey slams United Arab Emirates over destructive policies in Libya

Turkey backs the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord and has signed a military cooperation agreement to help the fight against Haftar. The government in Ankara has repeatedly urged world powers to stop supporting Haftar’s forces, which it deems “putschists.”

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has slammed the United Arab Emirates for its destructive policies in northern Africa and the Middle East.

While commenting on UAE’s remarks on Thursday April 30, 2020, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hami Aksoy, reacted that the Emiratis needed to abandon what it called a “hostile attitude” towards Ankara.

Turkey’s reaction followed a remark from the UAE that called on all Libyan parties to commit to the United Nations-supervised political process to end the war.

The remark also instructed that the army led by renegade military commander, Khalifa Haftar, must be saluted, but Turkish military intervention must be rejected.

Aksoy reacted that, “The remarks were an attempt by the UAE to hide their two-faced politics and the country was providing aid to putschists in Libya.”

Turkey backs the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord and has signed a military cooperation agreement to help the fight against Haftar. The government in Ankara has repeatedly urged world powers to stop supporting Haftar’s forces, which it deems “putschists.”

In its Thursday statement, the Emirati Foreign Ministry said it commended the Libyan National Army for conducting anti-terror operations and expressed its categorical rejection of the Turkish military intervention in support of the GNA.

The UAE statement did not comment directly on Haftar’s declaration on Monday that his army would take power, ripping up a 2015 political agreement that has been the basis for all international peacemaking efforts.

“The UAE’s actions disrupting international peace, security and stability not just in Libya, but all the region, including Yemen, Syria and Africa, are well known to the international community,” Aksoy said in a statement.

“We call on the UAE leadership to avoid taking a hostile stance against our country and to know its place,” he added.