Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Ankara will not refrain from teaching ‘putschist Khalifa Haftar’ a lesson if he keeps attacking Libya’s government and the Libyan people.
In an address to the parliament on Tuesday, Erdogan said Haftar ran away from Moscow without signing the ceasefire agreement, which shows his real intention to continue with the war.
“Turkey and GNA’s delegations did their part in Moscow by signing the ceasefire agreement, so Russia has to do the same with Haftar now”. Erdogan added.
The Turkish President added that his country will stand by Libya as Libya has stood by Turkey in its hard times.
“Libya’s legitimate government is being targeted and we won’t sit idly by and watch.” Erdogan indicated.
In the meantime, Khalifa Haftar and his delegation left the Russian capital, Moscow, without signing the ceasefire agreement that was brokered by Turkey and Russia.
This came after Haftar had asked the Russians and the Turks for a push in the signing deadline from Monday evening to Tuesday 10.00 am in the morning – Moscow time.
On last Sunday, the Presidential Council announced accepting a ceasefire in Tripoli as per the calls of Putin and Erdogan after the spokesman for Haftar’s militias Ahmed Al-Mismari had announced at midnight the start of a ceasefire truce in the western region.
The Putin-Erdogan call for ceasefire came in a meeting on January 08, when they both stressed that the warring parties in Libya should commit to the truce starting on January 12 and then resume the political process.
