Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are set to discuss the possibility of Ankara dispatching military support to the U.N.-recognized government of Libya during their meeting secheduled for next January, a Kremlin source said on Tuesday.
"Russia ..supports any efforts and individual countries in terms of finding solutions to the (Libyan) crisis," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Erdoğan said on Sunday Turkey is ready to provide Tripoli any military support it needs after Ankara and Libya's internationally recognised government signed a security deal.
"We will be protecting the rights of Libya and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean," he said on A Haber TV. "We are more than ready to give whatever support necessary to Libya."
Khalifa Haftar, who leads forces in eastern Libya, "is not a legitimate leader...and is representative of an illegal structure," Erdogan said after meeting in Istanbul with Fayez al-Sarraj, prime minister of Libya's Government of National Accord.
Haftar’s forces launched a campaign to capture Tripoli from Libya’s internationally recognized GNA.
Clashes between the two sides since then have left more than 1,000 dead and about 5,500 wounded, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The oil-rich country has remained beset by turmoil since 2011 when longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a NATO-backed uprising after four decades in power.
Libya has since seen the emergence of two rival seats of power: One in the east to which Haftar is affiliated, and the Tripoli-based GNA, which enjoys UN recognition.
