Al Monitor newspaper indicated that Turkey is preparing for a stricter challenge in Libya as the conflict intensifies despite calls for a ceasefire in Libya out of its willingness to push confrontations towards the strategic areas of Sirte and Jufra within the next month.
Al Monitor newspaper opened its analytical report on the dramatic developments of the Libyan conflict with a question about the possibility of Libya heading to a traditional military confrontation between Turkey and Egypt as competition intensified for the oil-rich Sirte region and the Jufra airbase.
The newspaper pointed out that the operational preparations of Ankara continue despite calls for a ceasefire from Moscow and others, which predicts attempts to advance towards Sirte and Jufra in the second half of July.
The report described Sirte as the key to controlling the “Oil Crescent Region” in Libya, which includes 60% of Libyan oil exports, except for its military significance due to the nature of its location that comes on the Libyan coast and connects the east with the west.
The report pointed out that Jufra possesses a strategic importance that allows controlling the entire Libyan airspace, in addition to being a major road linking the south of the country with the coast, adding that the GNA control of Jufra means that it has control in all of Libya.
The newspaper identified the problem in GNA insistence that a permanent ceasefire will be associated with the withdrawal of the Libyan National Army forces from Sirte and Jufra, a position strongly supported by Turkey, while Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar believes that the Skhirat agreement is a thing of the past.
In a related context, the newspaper believes that the Turkish intervention in Libya led to the division of NATO, as France leads the anti-Turkey bloc within the alliance amid increasing bilateral tensions over Libya in particular and the eastern Mediterranean in general.
Meanwhile, the United States, Italy, and Germany hope that Turkish military activity in Libya will hinder Russia from obtaining permanent military bases in Libya and using the country as a hub to expand its influence in Africa.
