For the first time, aviation sites have monitored the launch of Syrian and Russian cargo planes to the Emirates-managed server base in Libya. For his part, former UN envoy Ghassan Salameh spoke about what he called the hypocrisy of members of the Security Council and their support for the retired Major General Khalifa Hifter’s attack on the capital, Tripoli.
The radar box, which is concerned with aviation movement, showed the launch of the Syrian regime's Ilyushin cargo plane, Type 76, towards Egypt.
The plane's movement shows that it departed on Monday evening from Damascus towards Latakia and then to Egypt, and was absent from the radar after its arrival in West Alexandria.
However, Flight Monitor, a website specializing in aviation monitoring, broadcast pictures showing the plane's path after it entered Egypt, as it headed to the base server airport in Libya, which is run by the Emirates to support Haftar's forces. This plane appeared again last Tuesday, west of Alexandria, as it was leaving Egypt to return to Syria.
The site also detected a Russian cargo plane of the same type, as it departed from Moscow to Hmeimim Airport in Lattakia, Syria, and from there towards Egypt, then to the border with Libya, and then absent from the radar.
On the other hand, the Bosphorus Observatory indicated that this Russian plane was heading towards the Libyan servant base.
A UN report spoke last April about an air movement to transport mercenaries from Russia and Syria to take part in the fighting alongside Haftar's forces.
The Libyan Al-Wefaq government says that the Syrian regime's planes transport mercenaries and weapons to support Haftar in violation of the arms embargo to Libya, and then return aircraft fuel in another violation of the ban on the supply of this type of fuel to Syria.
The daily violation
of his part, the Turkish ambassador to Paris Ismail Hakki Musa said that the arms embargo imposed on Libya is not being monitored, and is not respected in eastern Libya "and exposed ( the ban) violated daily by Egypt and the UAE."
He pointed out that hundreds of shipments come from the UAE and go to eastern Libya via Egypt to reinforce Haftar's forces. He added that the Syrian regime is sending mercenaries daily from the Ahmeimim base to Libya with the support of the Emirates. The ambassador considered that the initiative presented by Cairo regarding Libya was buried in its infancy and had no serious political value.
In a speech to the French Senate Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Turkish ambassador confirmed that his country is in Libya at the official invitation of the legitimate (Libyan) government recognized by the United Nations.
Hakki Moussa added, "I do not understand why Europe and France are interested in banning the supply of arms only by sea, while ignoring them by land and air, as the United Nations decision in this regard is violated daily across the Egyptian land borders, and by air by sending the Emirates planes to Libya."
In the same context, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during which they discussed developments in the situation in Libya and Syria.
According to a statement issued by the Turkish Presidency Communication Department, on Wednesday evening, Erdogan and Merkel also discussed developments in regional issues, particularly Libya and Syria.
Back stab On
his part, former UN envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salameh, denounced what he called the hypocrisy of some countries at the UN Security Council, accusing them of having made a "stab in the back" by supporting Haftar in his failed attack on Tripoli.
"I no longer have any role," the Lebanese diplomat said in an interview with the "Humanitarian Dialogue Center" on Wednesday. On the day he attacked Tripoli, he (Haftar) had the support of most of them (members of the Security Council) while we were criticized in Libya for not stopping him. "
Since his appointment as head of the UN mission in June 2017, Salama has attempted to make progress in talks between the parties to the conflict to find a solution, but has faltered more than once.
The former UN envoy went on to say that these talks were undermined by the Haftar attack in April 2019 on Tripoli, days before a national dialogue conference in Ghadames, which the United Nations had been preparing for long before that with the help of the Humanitarian Dialogue Center.
Salama said that the Haftar attack, which was launched with military support from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, as well as with French support, which Paris denies, "resulted in stopping the peace process that we worked on for a full year."
"Here you will understand that the hypocrisy of these countries, at this stage, has reached stages that make your work very problematic," he added.
Salameh said, "Important countries have not only supported Haftar, but have deliberately colluded against holding the national conference" in Ghadamis (western Libya), adding that "they did not want to hold" the conference.
He continued, "I am very angry," considering that the existing international system is "completely weakened", especially with regard to "direct military intervention in local conflicts." He regretted that "the leaders of important countries no longer have any conscience."
Salama resigned from his post last March, saying that his health no longer endured that period of stress, stressing that he had sought for two years and more to reunite the Libyans and curb external interference and safeguard the country's unity.