Author Bobby Ghosh commented on French President Emmanuel Macron's criticism of Turkey's role in Libya, criticizing his statements about Libya that it has turned from overstatement and hypocrisy into something closer to hysteria, after supporting a suspected war criminal against a government recognized by the United Nations in Tripoli.
In his column on the Bloomberg News Network, Gosh pointed out that Macron now accused Turkey of "playing a dangerous game" in Libya, and that after losing any influence France may have had in the civil war, he says he will "not tolerate" Turkish intervention.
Gush Macron criticized that he may suffer from a weak memory, and that due to all the recent twists and turns in the Libyan Civil War and the complications caused by about 12 foreign bodies, France's basic contribution to this vortex may be lost.
He felt that Macron could have quietly moved away from Haftar, but instead, after he had appointed Le Drian, his foreign minister, he called for French intervention.
The only leader who was moving the Libyan compass was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose support, in word and deed, for the government of National Accord forced Haftar's forces to withdraw completely.
Despite denying reports that France supplied arms to the rebels and that appeared in one of the bases of retired Major General Khalifa Hifter, Macron appointed himself a peacemaker and legalized the rebel leader, who never abandoned his ambition to take Tripoli by force.
With other more committed allies behind him, notably Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Russia, Haftar managed to treat his French sponsors as they treated the United Nations-backed government with a blatant disregard.
However, Gosh says, Macron crammed himself into Haftar's corner and would not give up his leg. While France was confined to a quarrel with Italy over energy interests, the peacemaker's mantle moved to other prosecutors, as Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted the meetings, and even Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi tried to fabricate a cease-fire.
But the only leader who was moving the Libyan compass was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose support, in word and deed, for the National Accord government forced Haftar's forces to withdraw completely. This turn of events has led to more embarrassing disclosures of Macron and Le Drian, as the discovery of mass graves in the liberated lands of the rebels suggests that the hero of France was driving widespread atrocities.
Gosh concluded his article that it does not require Macronist cynicism to see his rhetoric bragging as a desperate attempt to deflect attention from the French offense, and that Macron's delusions of retaining French influence in the southern Mediterranean seem clear, but Turkey has masked it.