Iran, Turkey joining hands in Libya

Noura Bendari

Iran continues to support regional militias with the aim of exporting the ideals of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

This comes at a time it suffers tough economic conditions and keeps battling the coronavirus.

Tehran is also cooperating with Turkey on Libya to back the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is using Iranian ships to cover up Turkish arms shipments to the GNA, according to an Iranian researcher.

Iranian support

Iranian researcher Babak Taghvaee revealed on June 6 that Iran plays a secret role in supporting the militias allied with the GNA for the sake of Ankara.

Turkey, he said, has a plan to control Libyan natural gas.

He added that Iran had supplied Turkey with cargo vessels for it to use in ferrying arms from different countries, including Turkey, Bulgaria and Sudan to Libya, via the Port of Misurata.

The Iranian ships are used in getting around a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, Taghvaee said.

Secret war

Taghvaee referred to an Iranian ship that anchored in Sudan and then left it on August 20, 2018 on the road to Libya. The ship arrived in the Port of Misurata a month later, he said.

He referred to another ship that was stopped by Libyan authorities. It carried early warning equipment manufactured in Iran, he said.

He noted that Iranian state media had received an injunction from Iranian authorities to talk negatively about the Libyan National Army (LNA).

Taghvaee noted that Iran also sent military advisors to Tripoli to advise the GNA and its allied militias.

In May 2019, Libyan activists widely shared a video of rockets at the Port of Misurata.

The rockets were part of an Iranian arms shipment to Libya, they said.

The added that the shipment contained 100 ammunition containers and 20,000 rockets that would be used in the fight against the LNA.