Missiles of the French Army in Libya: Tripoli demands explanations from Paris

While France has admitted that missiles found in a base of Marshal Khalifa Haftar's forces near Tripoli belonged to it, Libya demands explanations. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of National Unity (GNA), Mohamad Tahar Siala, wrote Thursday, July 11 a letter to his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian. He asks him "to explain urgently the mechanism by which the French weapons discovered in Gharyan have reached Haftar's forces". "When were they delivered and how?", Adds the missive of the government recognized by the UN.

Mohamad Taha Siala also wished to know "the quantities of weapons" that would have provided France to Marshal Haftar, and "whose existence (in Libya) contradicts the declarations of the French government (...) of support to the GNA, as the only internationally recognized ".

France admitted that these missiles belonged to her, while refuting to have supplied them to Marshal Haftar. "The Javelin missiles found in Gharyan actually belong to the French armies, who bought them in the United States," the French Ministry of the Armed Forces said Wednesday, confirming embarrassing revelations from the New York Times.

Ammunition "out of order", according to Paris

The American newspaper on Tuesday attributed to France the ownership of four of these anti-tank American missiles, discovered by the forces loyal to the GNA in Gharyan, city resumed in late June to Marshal Haftar 100 km from Tripoli. The strong man of Eastern Libya launched on April 4 an offensive on the capital.

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"These weapons were intended for the self-protection of a French detachment deployed for counterterrorism intelligence purposes," detailed the Ministry of the Armed Forces, thus forced to confirm the presence of French forces on Libyan territory.

These ammunition, "damaged and out of order", were "temporarily stored in a depot for destruction" and "were not transferred to local forces", assures Paris who denies having provided them to the troops Marshal Haftar, without explaining how they ended on this basis.

France acknowledges having brought intelligence to Marshal Haftar in the East and the South but refutes any military support in his offensive against Tripoli. In 2016, three soldiers were killed during an intelligence mission in the East.

With AFP