DOHA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2020) Qatari Minister of State for Defense Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah has held negotiations with his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, and Fathi Bashagha, the interior minister of Libya's UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), amid Cairo's decision on the possible deployment of armed forces to Libya, the Qatari Defense Ministry said.
The talks were held in Ankara late on Monday.
"The Qatari government's deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense affairs, Khalid Al Attiyah, met with Libyan [GNA] Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha in the Turkish capital of Ankara. They discussed the latest developments in Libya," the Qatari Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter.
Apart from that, Al Attiyah held talks with Turkish Defense Minister Akar in Ankara, focusing on "bilateral defense relations and the possibility to develop and strengthen them," the ministry added.
In late June, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi announced that his country, supporting the Libyan National Army, was ready to train and arm Libyan tribes in order to assist their effort against foreign interference. The president also said that Egypt's direct intervention to counteract Turkish forces would be internationally legitimate. In mid-July, Libya's Tobruk-based parliament gave permission to the Egyptian armed forces to intervene in the conflict in the North African country. On Monday, the Egyptian parliament approved the possible dispatch of troops to carry out combat missions abroad, thereafter giving Sisi a mandate to intervene in the conflict in Libya.
