Turkey is investigating how weapons and ammunition were loaded in two shipments traveling from Turkey to Libya, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced Saturday.
During his meeting with head of the Presidency Council Faiez Sarraj as part of his visit to Tripoli on Saturday, Cavusoglu denounced the act, saying that Turkey does not follow such policy.
He agreed with Sarraj to launch joint investigations to reveal all details behind the two shipments, which were seized on Dec. 18 at Khoms port.
“We are going to take firm measures on this subject, and investigations have been started on how they entered Libya,” Cavusoglu said in translated comments at a press conference with his Libyan counterpart in Tripoli.
Meanwhile, both sides discussed means to improve further economic and commercial relations.
The Turkish prime minister also met with Ahmad Maiteeg, deputy head of the Presidency Council.
He pointed out that Turkey stands ready to assist in every possible way in areas of education, health and infrastructure to enable Libya to rise on its feet again.
Commenting on the Turkish prime minister’s visit, Fathi al-Marimi, the Media Advisor to the Presidency of the House of Representatives said Turkey tries to “disguise” the criminal act.
On Wednesday, the Libyan Foreign Ministry contacted the Turkish authorities for information about circumstances of the two incidents.
For its part, the Libyan National Army (LNA) demanded the UN Security Council on Wednesday to open an immediate investigation into the two shipments.
“The ammunition in those shipments included more than 4.2 million bullets, enough to kill nearly 80 percent of the Libyan people, as well as pistols and rifles with their accessories, including silencers used for assassinations,” the LNA said in a statement.
The LNA’s General Command said this was not the first weapon shipment that has allegedly been sent from Turkey. Previously, the army also found Turkish weapons during the liberation of Benghazi from terrorism around July 2017, in addition to tons of Turkish explosives seized by Greece in January.
