Al-Khums municipality denied reports of leasing its port to Türkiye for 99 years, adding that it had contacted relevant state authorities and they were firm in their dismissal of the reports.
Earlier on Wednesday, an X platform page called "Sanayi ve Savunma" said Türkiye had leased Al-Khums port for 99 years and a Turkish delegation headed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would sign the deal in Tripoli, without specifying the time of the signing.
The X page said Al-Khums port was not for companies but for a Turkish Naval Forces and Land Forces base, adding that Turkish Armed Forces would establish a military base to protect Turkish territorial waters, and at the same time ensure the safety of commercial ships.
Al-Khums (120 km east of Tripoli) witnessed in the past few days widespread protests and the main roads were closed due to reports that the city's commercial port was closed and all frigates and ships were removed in preparation for adding it to the nearby military base in Misrata.
The Libyan Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, has ordered – in a meeting with the Minister of Transpiration, Chief of General Staff, Ports Authority Director, Chief of Marine Staff, Al-Khums port’s chief, and the mayor of Al-Khums, among others – the Customs Authority and the Marine Resources Ministry to closely follow up on the situation of frigates that are illegally docked at Al-Khums port as well as the containers that have been left at the port over the years.
The meeting saw a discussion about the current entanglements at the port in Al-Khums, as well as the situation of the naval base at the port, as Dbeibah reiterated the need for cooperation among all related entities to ensure a smooth workflow at the port and to resolve the issues that would arise ahead.
Dbeibah said at the meeting on last Sunday that the agreement between the Ministries of Transpiration and Defense “should be revised to allow benefits to be made from the port and the naval base, in addition to striking cooperation between the two managements so they can avoid politicizing any legal administrative measures taken by the authorities.”
Meanwhile, the Chief of General Staff, Mohammed Al-Haddad, said some of the information circulated in public regarding the naval base to be set up at the port in Al-Khums was untrue, explaining that the agreement for the base was reached after thorough consultations among relevant authorities.
