Egypt's Sisi hosted East Libya-based military commander Khalifa Haftar in April [Anadolu/Getty]
Date of publication: 1 January, 2020
Libya has been mired in conflict since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with rival administrations in the east and the west vying for power.
Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive in April to take the capital from the internationally recognised government, making rapid gains before being stalled on the edge of the capital.
Read more: Turkey's military involvement in Libya: Do desperate times call for desperate measures?The Arab League, in a Tuesday meeting at its Cairo headquarters requested by Egypt, called for efforts to "prevent foreign interference" in Libya, in the wake of military and maritime agreements signed by Turkey with the UN-recognised government in Tripoli.
Permanent representatives of the pan-Arab organisation passed a resolution "stressing the necessity to prevent interference that could contribute to facilitating the arrival of foreign extremists in Libya".
On Monday, the UN's Libya envoy, Ghassan Salame, said the deals signed by Turkey and the Tripoli government represented an "escalation" of the conflict wracking the North African country.
In November, Ankara signed a security and military cooperation deal and also inked a maritime jurisdiction agreement with the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital.
Read more: EXCLUSIVE: Turkey's intervention in Libya to expand 'regional goals'
In addition, Turkey is preparing to hold a vote in parliament on deploying troops in support of the GNA which is battling forces of eastern military strongman Haftar, who is backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.
Egypt, in a letter sent to the United Nations last week, said it considers the Ankara-Tripoli agreements "void and without legal effect", adding that foreign military involvement in Libya amounted to a violation of a UN arms embargo in force since the uprising.
Agencies contributed to this report.
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