Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received in Istanbul today, Friday, the Prime Minister of the Libyan National Unity Government, Abdel Hamid Dabaiba, and the meeting was closed and dealt with the political file and a number of economic and military files.
And according to what Anadolu Agency reported - from a Libyan statement - the two sides agreed on a work program between the two countries that includes military cooperation and the energy field, and the return of Turkish companies to complete the stalled projects.
The statement added that Dabaiba invited President Erdogan to attend the first Turkish-Libyan forum to be held next November, in the presence of specialized Turkish companies.
According to the statement, Dabaiba saw what happened in the capital, Tripoli, last week as an attempt to seize power through weapons and conspiracies, and that there is no alternative for Libya to elections.
While Erdogan stressed during the meeting that change can only take place through elections, stressing his support and cooperation with Libya in all economic, security and military fields.
With the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs
On Thursday in Istanbul, Dabaiba met the Turkish Defense and Foreign Ministers Hulusi Akar and Mevlut Cavusoglu, and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, with whom he discussed unifying international and local efforts to support the elections in Libya.
Dabaiba's visit to Istanbul comes after days of bloody clashes in Tripoli between forces affiliated with the unity government and others loyal to the Fathi Pashaga government mandated by the House of Representatives held in Tobruk (eastern Libya).
The confrontations resulted in the killing of 32 people - more than half of them are civilians - and dozens of others were injured, while formations loyal to Bashagha returned after moving from nearby areas towards the capital, Tripoli.
Following these confrontations, the head of the Libyan unity government said that the coups are out of date, and that there is no way to control the power through them, indicating that the Libyans have no choice but to go to the elections, and demanded the House of Representatives and the state to stop “tampering” and adopt a constitutional rule for the elections, adding that “ The aggression against Tripoli is planned from within and without.
Al-Dabaiba stressed that he will hand over power only to an elected government, and he also refuses to enter into a new transitional phase or to extend the current legislative bodies (the House of Representatives and the Supreme Council of State).
For months, two governments have been wrestling in Libya: one headed by Fathi Bashagha, who was assigned by the House of Representatives in Tobruk, and the second led by Dabaiba, who refuses to hand over power except to a government assigned to it by a new elected parliament.
This conflict has raised fears of war, with a continuing armed build-up in Tripoli by forces loyal to the two governments.