By Libya Herald staff.
Tunis, 2 March 2015:
Turkey has launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, Abdullah Al-Thinni, accusing him of slandering . . .[restrict]it and of acting in the interests of other countries rather than of Libya.
It is its harshest condemnation of Thinni to date and it follows his announcement that Turkish companies are to be banned from Libya because Ankara continues to support Libya Dawn.
Turkey denies the accusation.
“In view of his unfounded statements, it is obvious that Mr Al-Thinni does not reflect the feelings of the Libyan people towards Turkey and he does not represent the Libyan people either,” a Turkish foreign ministry statement said.
In a thinly veiled accusation that he is acting it Egypt’s interests, it said that it was “meaningful that Mr Al-Thinni made these statements in a neighbouring country which is notorious of its “contributions” to Libya. It is obvious that al-Thinni will not be able to gain the legitimacy he needs by acting as the instrument of some ill-intentioned circles in the region.”
Thinni repeated earlier allegations while in Egypt last week that Turkey is supplying arms to Dawn. “Turkey is a state that is not dealing honestly with us,” he told Egyptian TV station CBC, accusing it of exporting weapons to the country that enables Libyans “to kill one another”.
The Turkish statement continued: “We hope that Mr Al-Thinni begins as soon as possible serving the interests of Libya and the Libyan people, instead of other countries. This can only be achieved by making constructive contributions to the dialogue process, which is carried out among all parties in Libya under the UN auspices, but not by bullying and slandering countries which are Libya’s true friends, like Turkey.” [/restrict]
