FILE - Confiscated weapons are seen at a police station in Slovyansk, in Ukraine's Donetsk region - REUTERS
CAIRO - 27 December 2018: Libyan National Army Spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari affirmed rejection of the Presidential Council's decision to involve the Turkish authorities in the investigations on a ship that was seized with Turkish weapons on board, according to Mismari.
In an interview with Egypt Today on Tuesday, Mismari affirmed total rejection of the local investigation committee that Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the Libyan Presidential Council, and Mevlüt Cavusoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, agreed to jointly investigate the incident.
Mismari asserted that the ship that was seized at Libya's Khoms port last week headed from a Turkish port, adding that Turkey is involved in the criminal and terrorist attack, and therefore, it must not take part in the investigations.
He stressed the need to launch a transparent international investigation into the incident, calling on the UN Security Council to investigate the case as the council is serious about fighting terrorism and its sources of funding.
Mismari said that the recently confiscated Turkish cargo is different from the previously seized ones that included materials involved in the manufacture of explosives and bombs, adding that this time the cargo contained rifles, pistols and silencers.
Libya and Turkey agreed on Saturday to launch an urgent joint investigation into a consignment of arms which arrived from Turkey and was seized at a port near Tripoli this week, the UN-backed Libyan government said.
The government released the statement following talks in Tripoli between Libyan Prime Minister Sarraj and Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu. The statement quoted Cavusoglu as saying Ankara rejected such actions “which do not represent the policy or approach of the Turkish state."
The consignment sent from Turkey contained 3,000 Turkish-made pistols, as well as some other pistols, hunting rifles and ammunition, Benghazi’s Benina Airport customs services said on their official Facebook account.
A day earlier a cargo of 2.5 million Turkish-made bullets was seized at the same port, the same source said.
The UN mission in Libya has condemned the shipment of arms to Libya as “extremely disconcerting.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
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