Libya PM Serraj in Malta visit, day after Turkish defence minister talks

Libyan prime minister Fayez el Serraj is visiting Malta on an official visit to discuss security in the Mediterranean as well as irregular immigration from Libya. 

The visit comes just a day after Serraj met Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar, who later flew to Malta on a short visit to meet Evarist Bartolo. 

The meeting with Turkey was considered important in the light of Malta’s overtures to the NATO country. 

Turkey is actively providing the UN-recognised Government of National Accord in Libya with weaponry and air support in its fight against Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army. 

Tripoli insists that Operation Irini, which was set up to enforce the Libyan arms embargo, punishes it by attempting to prevent Turkish supplies from across the Eastern Mediterranean. 

Irini, run by a joint Italian-Greek command, is also attempting to patrol the seas in which the GNA extended its exclusive economic zone to the Turkish zone. 

Malta withdrew from EUNAVFOR Irini, the European naval operation considered to be inimical to Turkey’s geopolitical interests, in a bid to gain Turkish support in forcing Tripoli’s hand to control militias controlling human smuggling operations in the Central Mediterranean.