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Analysts: Turkey Terribly Defeated in Berlin Over Libya


Mon 20 Jan 2020 | 05:45 PM
Yassmine Elsayed

Analysts considered that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a "terrible defeat" over his plans in Libya as the world leaders who gathered in Berlin for a summit on Libya reaffirmed their commitment to respect the arms embargo to this country and denounced sending foreign fighters to take part at the battles there.

Sky News quoted analysts that by the end of the international conference, Turkey was alone facing the international community, after the results led to completely opposite ends to what Ankara desires.

During the international conference on Libya, Turkey came under harsh criticism after it sought, through the international gathering, to clear its position in the conflict that is tearing up the Libyan territories. French President Emmanuel Macron demanded Ankara to refrain from sending hired fighters to Libya.

"I must tell you that what worries me most is the arrival of Syrian and foreign fighters in the city of Tripoli, it must stop," Macron announced during the conference. "Those who think they are making gains out of this are not aware of the risks that they and all of us are exposed to," the French president added.

Sending foreign fighters to Libya was the step Turkey took, perhaps to solidify the negotiating position of Al-Wefaq governemnt in Tripoli (and its leader Fayez Al-Sarraj), where it mobilized thousands of fighters hired to fight in Libya alongside militias supporting the government.

Earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights revealed that the number of Syrian recruits, who arrived in Tripoli, rose to about 2,400, indicating that recruitment operations continue in the areas controlled by Turkey in northern Syria, bringing the number to about 6000 Syrian volunteers in Libya.

On his part, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed his concern about the presence of foreign forces in Libya, during a meeting with his Turkish counterpart.

The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, also told Sky News that it is time to stop "external parties" from interfering in the war in Libya.

"The proxy disputes end only when the external parties decide that they want to end it," he said. "We want a UN-sponsored peace and that this competition stops."

Johnson said that the people of Libya have suffered enough.