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By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 26, July 2016:
Presidency Council head Faiez Serraj has delivered a formal protest to French ambassador Antoine Sivan over the presence of French forces in Benghazi.
Three French intelligence officials died when a helicopter crashed, either as a result of a mechanical fault ,as the French insist, or because it was shot down, as the Benghazi Defence Brigade has claimed.
The two men met yesterday on the sidelines of the Arab summit in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott.
According the the Government of National Accord media office Serraj formally presented the GNA’s protest that, by the French government’s own admission, its forces had been involved in Libya. Serraj said that this involvement had not be authorised by his administration. He told Sivan that such an intervention was completely unacceptable between sovereign states.
He insisted that relations between France and the PC be based on mutual respect and non-interference on each other’s internal affairs. He further demanded an explanation from Paris of what French forces had been doing in Libya. The French government has claimed that its operatives were monitoring terrorist movements.
The French ambassador is said to have replied that France fully supported the PC and the GNA . Sivan is understood to have given an assurance that a formal note would be forthcoming from the French government explaining what had happened.
