Speaker of Libyan Parliament: Turkey's Move Unacceptable

Speaker of Libyan parliament Aguila Saleh affirmed today that Turkey's willingness to dispatch troops to Libya is "unacceptable" and such a move would constitute unwanted meddling in the affairs of a friendly country.

According to the state-run Cyprus News Agency, Saleh said in a joint statement with his Cypriot counterpart that Turkey's actions are ratcheting up tensions and destabilizing the wider region.

Saleh and Cypriot parliamentary speaker Demetris Syllouris repeated their condemnation of a maritime border MOU that Turkey signed with Libya's Tripoli-based government — but which hasn't been ratified, as necessary, by the Libyan parliament — as a "flagrant violation of international law that's devoid of any legal basis."

In Rome, asked about a possible Turkish military action in Libya in support of Serraj's forces, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said he had tried to discourage any attempt as a military solution in Libya.

According to AP, Conte, who discussed Libya with Erdogan in a phone call last week, told reporters today that a "proxy war in Libya" would, "instead of stabilizing" the North African country across the Mediterranean from Italy, only aggravate the "incredible fragmentation" there.

Rather, Conte called for stepped-up diplomatic pressure to push for a political solution, and said Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio might soon return to Libya to push Italy's determination to work for a "cessation of hostilities."

"We can't accept any military escalation," the Italian premier said at a year-end news conference.

Earlier this month, Saleh wrote a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in which he denounced the government in Tripoli, after it signed the maritime boundaries pact with Turkey, and described it as an “illegal entity" and "null and void."