Turkey May Not Send Forces to Libya if Haftar Halts Tripoli Offensive

A fighter loyal to the GNA fires a heavy machine gun during clashes with the LNA on the outskirts of Tripoli. (Reuters)
A fighter loyal to the GNA fires a heavy machine gun during clashes with the LNA on the outskirts of Tripoli. (Reuters)
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Turkey May Not Send Forces to Libya if Haftar Halts Tripoli Offensive

A fighter loyal to the GNA fires a heavy machine gun during clashes with the LNA on the outskirts of Tripoli. (Reuters)
A fighter loyal to the GNA fires a heavy machine gun during clashes with the LNA on the outskirts of Tripoli. (Reuters)

Turkey may hold off from sending troops to Libya if the Libyan National Army, commanded by Khalifa Haftar, halts its offensive against the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli and pulls back, the Turkish vice president said on Wednesday.

The Turkish parliament is due to debate and vote on a bill mandating the deployment of military forces to Libya on Thursday after Fayez al-Sarraj’s GNA requested support as part of a military cooperation agreement.

“After the bill passed from the parliament...it might happen that we would see something different, a different stance and they would say “okay, we are withdrawing, dropping the offensive”,” Fuat Oktay said in an interview with Andalou news agency. “Then, why would we go there?”

Oktay also said that Ankara hoped the Turkish bill would send a deterrent message to the warring parties.

Ankara has already sent military supplies to the GNA despite a United Nations embargo, according to a UN report seen by Reuters, and has said it will continue to support it.

In November, Ankara signed a security and military cooperation deal and also inked a maritime jurisdiction agreement with the GNA.

The moves have drawn the ire of Egypt, Cyprus and Greece.

Egypt, in a letter sent to the United Nations last week, said it considers the agreements "void and without legal effect", adding that foreign military involvement in Libya amounted to a violation of a UN arms embargo.

The Arab League called Tuesday for efforts to "prevent foreign interference" in Libya.

On Monday, the UN's Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame, said the deals signed by Turkey and the GNA represented an "escalation" of the conflict wracking the North African country.



UN Human Rights Office: 798 People Killed while Receiving Aid in Gaza

Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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UN Human Rights Office: 798 People Killed while Receiving Aid in Gaza

Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry containers for water at a camp for the displaced in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The UN human rights office said on Friday that it had recorded at least 798 killings both at aid points run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and near humanitarian convoys run by other relief groups, including the UN.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid.

The United Nations has called the plan "inherently unsafe" and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules.

"Up until the seventh of July, we've recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites, and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys," OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva, according to Reuters.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May and has repeatedly denied that incidents had occurred at its sites.