Egyptian think tank accuses Turkey of obstructing withdrawing mercenaries from Libya

The director of the Afro-Asian Center for Political Studies in Cairo, Mohamed Fathi Al-Sharif, said that “the map for the exit of mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya is ready, and Turkey is obstructing that.”

Al-Sharif added in an interview with Russia Today that: “The meetings of the “5 + 5” committee, which started yesterday, Saturday in Cairo, in the presence of the UN envoy for support in Libya, Jan Kubis, come within the framework of finding a serious and quick treatment for the real exit of mercenaries and foreign forces from Libyan lands, especially after that good frameworks for the solution were put in place, but the obstacles to implementation remained even after the Berlin Conference (2) and the Stability Support Conference that was recently held in the capital Tripoli.

Al-Sharif continued: “The Cairo meetings will result in a court announced plan for the exit of mercenaries and foreign forces, and it will be presented to public opinion after agreement with neighboring countries and overlapping countries, and it will include their numbers, whereabouts and the timing of their exit.”

The director of the Afro-Asian Center for Studies stated, “The serious exit of mercenaries and foreign forces will contribute to the holding of the Libyan elections on time, which was evident in the international community’s adoption of this date and the pressure to implement the procedure on that date since the announcement of the Deputy UN Envoy for Support in Libya, Stefani. Williams, in Tunisia, about the date of the elections before the appointment of the new authority.

Al-Sharif announced that “the map of the exit of mercenaries and foreign forces has been ready since the committee held the last Geneva meeting, but it was not announced due to Turkey’s intransigence and insistence on the survival of its forces in supporting the militias, which hinders all efforts.”