NATO to Probe France-Turkey Med Naval Incident – The New York Times

The government in Tripoli led by Fayez Sarraj is backed not just by Turkey, which sent troops and mercenaries to protect the capital in January, but also Italy and Qatar. Rival forces under the command of Khalifa Hifter, who launched an offensive on Tripoli last year, are supported by France, Russia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and other key Arab countries.

Turkeys support for the government of national accords offensive goes directly against the efforts to secure a ceasefire, which we support, the French ministry said. This support is aggravated by the hostile and unacceptable actions of Turkish naval forces toward NATO allies, which is aimed at undermining efforts taking place to uphold the U.N. arms embargo.

This conduct, like all foreign interference in the Libyan conflict, must cease, it warned.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is trying to secure NATOs support for Europe's own naval effort, Operation Irini, possibly in part to avoid such incidents in the future, but diplomats and officials have said that Turkey is likely to block any such move.

Borrell, who took part in the NATO video meeting, said Wednesday that he hopes an EU-NATO cooperation agreement can be set up" shortly, because helping to enforce the arms embargo is in the security interests of both organizations.

Asked Wednesday what the response might be, Stoltenberg said we are looking into possible support, possible cooperation, but no decision has been taken. There is dialogue, contacts, addressing that as we speak.

Borrell has highlighted some of the challenges the EU naval operation faces. He said its personnel tried to make contact last week with a suspicious Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship that was being escorted by two Turkish warships. He said the ship refused to respond, but its Turkish escorts said the cargo was medical equipment bound for Libya.

The EU operation tried to verify the information with Turkish and Tanzanian authorities, and reported the incident to the United Nations, but there was nothing more it could do, he said.

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Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

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NATO to Probe France-Turkey Med Naval Incident - The New York Times