Libya: Turkey accuses France of "endangering NATO security"

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Recep spokesman Tayyip Erdogan accused the French government this Saturday of "supporting an illegitimate warlord", in the person of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, while Ankara appears as the main ally of the government of Tripoli.

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With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer

While certain states - Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia - bring much more massive military support and much more political support to Khalifa Haftar, it is France that Turkey accuses, by voice this time -this spokesman for the presidency, to "  endanger NATO security, security in the Mediterranean, security in North Africa and stability in Libya  ".

There are several reasons for this. First, Turkey accuses France of a certain hypocrisy since it claims to "  choose no side  " while being accused - and not only by Ankara - of supporting Khalifa Haftar. Then, France itself multiplies the verbal attacks against Ankara in this file, accusing it of violating the embargo of the United Nations by supplying weapons to the government of Tripoli, denouncing a Turkish interventionism "  unacceptable  ".

Seen from Ankara, these criticisms are all the worse for the fact that Paris expresses them within the very bodies of NATO - of which Turkey is a member - and that they add to tensions already keen between the two allies. Last year, French President Emmanuel Macron took the front line to denounce the Turkish offensive against the Kurdish forces in Syria.

► Read also: Libya: tension mounts within NATO between France and Turkey

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• France
• Libya
• Nato
• Turkey