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French President Macron says Turkey is ‘playing a dangerous game’ in Libya

French President Emmanuel Macron said this week that Turkey was “playing a dangerous game” in Libya, noting that he had conveyed this position to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier, Reuters News Agency reported.

 “I had an opportunity to clearly say to President Erdogan that I believe that Turkey is playing a dangerous game in Libya,” noting that this “contradicts its commitments made during the Berlin conference,”  Macron said.

French leader added that he discussed the Libyan crisis with U.S. President Donald Trump.

It is noteworthy to mention that the participants in the Berlin International Conference on Libya agreed last January to a nationwide ceasefire and launch negotiations through the “5 + 5” committee, but the situation in Libya witnessed an escalation in recent months with the intensification of hostilities between the Libyan National Army LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and the Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Fayez Al-Sarraj.

Turkey has been the main backer of the Government of National Accord, as they have provided military and logistical support to the latter in their fight against the Libyan National Army.

Air support and weapons from Turkey over recent months have helped change the tide in Libya's civil war.

The UN-recognised Fayez Al-Sarraj Tripoli government pushed back a year-long siege on the capital Tripoli at the beginning of June and has secured much of the west of the country against Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA).

Turkey's military support — and the allied fighters it has transported from Syria — contributed to the Tripoli government's gains over the LNA, which is backed by Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has in several occasions  said Russian state is not in Libya and not ready to involve in Libyan war. The Position that has also been echoed by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavorov

But Wagner, a Russian military contractor has been identified of given logistic and military supports to LNA. 
Macron said Turkey's actions went against commitments it made during Berlin peace talks in January.

France has previously given military support to Haftar to fight Islamist militants and denies supporting his side in the civil war.

But Macron has not criticised countries allied to the LNA, even though he has often rebuked Turkey.

Last week France accused Turkey of harassing a French ship off the coast of Libya while it carried out checks on a Turkish ship that it suspected of breaking a UN arms embargo to Libya.

A French defence ministry account of the encounter — which occurred several weeks ago — said that Turkish frigates carried out radar targeting on a French ship, suggesting a missile strike was imminent.

Turkey denies this happened.

But Macron said on Monday that the incident between two NATO allies was an indication of the military alliance's weaknesses.

"When I see what is being done last week under NATO's command off the coast of Libya, I consider it unacceptable," he said. "And I'll take you back to my statement last year on NATO being brain dead. I think this is the best example of it."

The French president first made the "brain dead" remark last November, criticising what he considers the military alliance's failure to treat seriously the external threats to southern Europe and the Baltic states.

Libya has not known peace since 2011 NATO military operations that put an end to the long reign of Col. Muhamma Quadaffi. The North African Nation will now again play host to the demonstrations of fists of the world powers.

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