Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that his country is “negotiating with the political powers in west and east Libya,” noting that “the Turkish ambassador to Libya is visiting all regions.”
“We see Libya as a whole, but this does not change the fact that we recognize only the legitimate government,” referring to the interim government of national unity headed by Abdel Hamid Dabaiba.
“There are different forces currently in Libya, and our military presence in this country comes within the framework of an agreement, and this presence is the most legitimate at the moment,” he said, referring to the need to “establish a regular army for the unity of Libya.
Cavusoglu said that Cairo ” has security concerns about the problem of stability in Libya,” noting that “Turkey and Egypt are not two competing countries on the Libyan arena.
Regarding Egypt’s position on the agreement on hydrocarbon exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, he said: “This is not a problem, each country holds hydrocarbon agreements with another country. “Egypt is currently objecting to this agreement on the grounds that the current government in Libya cannot sign agreements because its mandate has expired and is no longer legitimate. Egypt did not say that the signed agreement was against it,” he said.
“The issue that Egypt is not comfortable with is our presence in Libya. We have been saying from the beginning that our presence there does not pose any threat to Egypt, and that this presence came at the invitation of the legitimate government that day, and continued at the request of subsequent governments, and we always declare that the Turkish presence has no negative effects on Egypt,” he said.
