Defiant to international law, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu announced that his country is speeding up the procedures to deploy troops in Libya, claiming that this could prevent Libya from slipping into chaos.
The minister's statement came as Al-Wefaq government, led by Fayez Al-Sarraj, supported by armed militias in Tripoli, is facing difficulties in battles against the Libyan National Army led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, which recently launched a “decisive operation” to liberate the capital from the terrorist militias supporting the Al- Saraj government.
Last month, Ankara signed a MOU with Al-Sarraj government, one on security and military cooperation and the other on maritime borders in the eastern Mediterranean, which the Libyan parliament has questioned its legitimacy.
Meanwhile, media in Turkey has revealed intense domestic opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's plans to deploy troops in Libya.
According to local newspaper "Hurriyet", Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People's Party, the main opposition party in Turkey, was highly critical of sending Turkish forces on military missions to Libya.
He said: "Foreign policy lacks depth, history and experience.. It is based on inclining with the Muslim Brotherhood," and "will bring more harm than gains to Turkey."
On his part, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that there are about a thousand fighters of Syrian nationality who have been recruited to Libya, adding that "300 of them are now in Tripoli."
Speaking to "Sky News Arabia", he added: "They are pro-Turkish groups, recruited for 2000 dollars a month, and a contract extends between 3 to 6 months."
He pointed out that the process of recruiting Syrian fighters loyal to Turkey began in Afrin, border city, under the name of "a Turkish security company," noting that there are promises to grant them Turkish citizenship "if they return from the battlefield alive."
In Rome, the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte issued a strongly worded warning to Erdogan of the consequences of Turkish military intervention in Libya. The Italian Prime Minister told reporters that the military intervention will not help in resolving matters on the ground, but rather will drag the Libyan crisis into a further escalation.
The PM was apparently referring to the frequent Turkish statements about the possibility of sending troops to Libya.
Meanwhile, the Tunisian army has raised the level of security alert on the border with Libya, in anticipation of any waves of displacement that may head towards Tunisia as a result of the intensification of battles between the Libyan National Army and the militias that control the Libyan capital, Tripoli.
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