BRUSSELS — Turkey is hindering European Union attempts to secure NATO’s help with a maritime arms embargo on conflict-torn Libya, according to diplomats and officials in Brussels.
The EU’s naval operation — dubbed Irini, the Greek word for “peace” — was launched around April 1 as is based in the Mediterranean. The European Council said it has as “its core task the implementation of the U.N. arms embargo through the use of aerial, satellite and maritime assets.”
But Turkey, a NATO member whose efforts to join the EU have stalled, suspects that Irini focuses too much on the internationally recognized Libyan administration in Tripoli and not enough on rival forces under the command of Khalifa Hifter, who launched an offensive in April 2019 to capture the capital.
Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising toppled leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The country has since been split between rival administrations in the east and the west, each backed by armed groups and different foreign governments.
Hifter is supported by France, Russia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other key Arab countries. The government in Tripoli, led by Fayez Sarraj, is backed by Italy, Qatar and Turkey, which sent troops and mercenaries to protect the capital in January.
On Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the bloc and NATO “are discussing how to establish a new arrangement of cooperation — not participation — cooperation between Operation Irini and NATO, once again in our shared interest.”
“I hope that this cooperation agreement can be set up on the next days,” said Borrell, who is set to take part in a video conference with NATO defense ministers Thursday.
But two NATO diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, raised doubts about whether Turkey would let such an arrangement happen. Because the 30-nation military alliance operates on the basis of unanimity, NATO’s support cannot be guaranteed.
So far, Turkey does not seem to be entirely onboard with the EU operation, and a recent incident highlights the limitations of Irini, which only has two ships and three planes, and needs more.
Borrell said that Irini personnel tried to make contact last week with a “suspicious” Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship that was being escorted by two Turkish warships. He said the ship refused to respond, but its Turkish escorts said the cargo was medical equipment bound for Libya.
He said the personnel contacted the Turkish and Tanzanian authorities to try to verify the information, and they also informed the United Nations. Borrell added that had Irini received no reply from any of the ships, it could have taken other action. He refused to elaborate.
“It is only in the cases in which the ship is not answering that we can take another kind of activities, we can do something more,” Borrell said. “We cannot do anything more than to transmit this information to the United Nations. It is the United Nations who gathers this information in order to control the implementation of the arms embargo.”
