The Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, arrived on Saturday in Tripoli to meet with the Libyan Presidential Council’s government officials to discuss issues of mutual interest.
Cavusoglu met with the Head of the Presidential Council, Fayez Al-Sirraj, the Foreign Minister Mohammed Sayala, and the Head of the High Council of State Khalid Al-Mishri, expressing to them all Turkey’s support for the political process under the auspices of the UNSMIL and for the economic reforms carried out by the government.
Meanwhile, Sayala and Cavusoglu held Saturday afternoon a press conference in Tripoli, where the Turkish official addressed the issue of the seized Turkish arms shipment in Al-Khums port.
Cavusoglu explained that he and Al-Sirraj had agreed to form a joint committee to work on finding out the ones responsible for the arms shipment.
“We are going to conduct a thorough investigation, but I can confirm that the Turkish government doesn’t know anything about the incident. The paper of the ship says it contains construction equipment not arms. We deplore this incident and we will make sure to work with Libya to bring the ones responsible to justice.” The Turkish Foreign Minister said in the joint presser.
Cavusoglu also said that there are certain known Arab and Western countries which are sending drones and military equipment to Libya, adding that those countries should questioned for such violations.
In the meantime, the Turkish Foreign Minister told the HCS’s Head Khalid Al-Mishri that his country is considering easing visa requirements on Libyans and is also mulling scrapping it fully.
He also talked about speeding up the return of the Turkish firms to work in Libya in different fields, such as energy and rebuilding projects.
