Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit has reiterated the body’s rejection of “illegal Turkish interventions” in the internal affairs of Arab countries, specifically in Iraq, Syria and Libya, warning that Ankara’s actions are threatening the whole of Arab national security, the Egyptian Ahram news website reported.
Aboul-Gheit made the remarks during an interview with Aly Hassan, the editor-in-chief of the MENA agency, on Wednesday.
He said Turkish interventions are “targeting and impinging on Arab national security” and affirmed that the pan-Arab body rejects any regional interference that “threatens the security, safety and stability of the Arab countries.”
On June 23 the Arab League held an extraordinary session via video conference to discuss developments in Libya and issued a 14-article resolution in which the league emphasized “the need for restoring the Libyan state and the role of its institutions in serving the Libyan people, away from foreign interventions.”
The resolution also referred to the “central role of Libya’s neighbouring countries in ending the Libyan crisis” and urged combating “foreign interventions—regardless of their source and nature—that facilitate the transfer of terrorist, foreign fighters into Libya” and rejected the violation of international decisions on an arms embargo.
The oil-rich country has been divided between rival administrations in the east and west since 2014, and the fissure is growing due to political stalemate and the failure of international diplomatic initiatives to reach a truce.
The Government of National Accord (GNA), which is based in Tripoli, is backed by Turkish troops and Qatar in its war against the eastern-based LNA and its leader Khalifa Haftar, who is supported by Egypt, the UAE and Russia.
The Egyptian initiative was announced on June 6 by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, Haftar and Libya’s parliament speaker Aguila Saleh. It involves a ceasefire, an elected leadership council and a longer-term peace plan.
Earlier this week, Libya’s eastern-based parliament, which backs Haftar, passed a motion authorizing Egypt to intervene militarily if needed to safeguard the “national security” of both countries in light of what it termed a Turkish “occupation.”
Forces allied with Haftar have recently pulled back east towards Sirte and Jufra airbase in central Libya after forces loyal to the rival government in the west extended control across most of northwest Libya and advanced further south.
Aboul-Gheit had told a League emergency ministerial meeting, held last month at the request of Egypt, that the situation in Libya has become “extremely dangerous.”