Türkiye again refused to allow the European Maritime Operation IRINI team to inspect one of its ships heading to Libya.
“Türkiye on Sunday again rejected a request to inspect the ship MV MATILDE A in accordance with Security Council Resolution No. 2292/2016 on the arms embargo on Libya,” IRINI wrote on its official X account.
The operation was launched on March 31, 2020 following the first Berlin Conference on Libya. It was mandated by the European Council to carry out as its core task the implementation of the UN arms embargo on Libya in resolution 2292 of 2016 and resolution 2526 of 2020, which are binding for all EU Member States, including Türkiye.
This is the 12th time that Ankara has prevented an IRINI team from boarding a merchant ship. Türkiye blames IRINI of besieging the interim Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli.
The operation had shared dozens of special reports with the UN Panel of Experts on Libya. Most of these reports referred to violations or possible violations of the arms embargo and oil smuggling activities in the west and in the east of the country.
Since the launch of the maritime mission, Türkiye has rejected operation IRINI, describing it as biased and of working for the benefit of the Sudanese Army.
On several occasions, Ankara has clashed with IRINI teams because of their insistence to inspect Turkish ships heading to Libya on suspicion that they were carrying weapons to the former Government of National Accord (GNA), headed by Fayez al-Sarraj and then the current GNU, headed by Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah.
Since the beginning of operation, IRINI has examined more than 1,000 suspected ships through information via radio calls. It also carried more than 500 visits with the captain’s approval to more than 500 merchant ships and inspected several suspicious flights.
The operation aims to counter illicit arms trafficking, supporting the implementation of the arms embargo on Libya based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, to gather intelligence on oil smuggling, in particular its impact on the Libyan economy and its possible use to finance the arms market; to contribute to the disruption of the business model of migrant smuggling by gathering intelligence by air and sharing it with Frontex and relevant national authorities; to support the development of the search and rescue capacity of relevant Libyan institutions through training.
Türkiye has sent thousands of its troops and thousands of mercenaries from pro-Turkish armed factions in Syria, to fight alongside forces in western Libya.
To this day, Ankara maintains thousands of members of its armed forces in Libya, along with about 7,000 Syrian mercenaries from the so-called “Syrian National Army.”
Despite international demands to withdraw mercenaries and foreign forces, Türkiye says its military presence in Libya is “legitimate and its forces should not be viewed as foreign forces.”
United Nations reports had previously accused SADAT, a Turkish defense consultancy, of violating an international arms embargo by deploying thousands of Syrian fighters to Libya.
The company has denied the allegations.
