Friday 01 / November / 2024
Tripoli: Turkey's foreign minister said during a visit to Tripoli on Monday that his country hoped to be the first to reopen its embassy in the Libyan capital, following the arrival of a UN-backed unity government at the end of March.
Security in Tripoli remains fragile and the unity government's leadership has been operating out of a heavily guarded naval base as it gradually tries to gain control of ministries.
Tunisia and several Western European states including France and Britain said shortly after the unity government's leadership moved to Tripoli that they hoped to reopen their embassies, but no dates have yet been announced.
"God willing, we will be the first country to resume our embassy's work in Tripoli," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, after meeting his Libyan counterpart Mohammed Siyala and Prime Minister Fayez Seraj at the naval base.
He also pledged Turkish support for the government's efforts to restore stability and security to Libya, and said Turkey hoped to boost its economic presence in the North African state.
"Turkish companies are looking forward with determination to continue their work and resume their activities in Libya in the sectors of transport and energy," he said.
Libya's oil-dependent economy has been hit hard by conflict and political chaos, with production dropping to about one fifth of the level it stood at before the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Most foreign employees working in the oil sector have left the country, and most Western diplomatic staff were evacuated from Tripoli in 2014 amid heavy fighting between rival factions.
As a result of the fighting, Libya's parliament and government moved to the east of the country, whilst a rival set of institutions were set up in the west in Tripoli.
Meanwhile, a force that controls key oil terminals in eastern Libya said it had captured the town of Ben Jawad from IS, pushing the militant group back along a coastal strip they control east of their stronghold of Sirte.
Spokesman Ali Al Hassi said four Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) fighters had been killed and 16 wounded in fierce clashes in the coastal town, and that fighting was continuing in the nearby town of Nawfiliyah.
The PFG claim, if it was independently verified, would prove significant as it might signal the start of a new front in the campaign against IS.
The PFG has declared its support for Libya's UN-backed unity government. Other brigades that back the government advanced last week to the outskirts of Sirte from the west.
"We launched today's attack to purge and liberate the central region from Daesh (IS), and secure this area under the umbrella of the ministry of defence and the Presidential Council, the Supreme Commander of the Libyan army," Hassi said. The Presidential Council is the unity government's leadership.
IS took advantage of a security vacuum in Libya to seize control of Sirte last year, extending its presence along about 250 km (155 miles) of coastline either side of the city.
In January the group announced it had established full control over Ben Jawad, about 150 km east of Sirte.
It also attacked the oil terminals of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, situated a little further east, clashing with the PFG and causing extensive damage.
