19 June 2020; MEMO: Press sources revealed on Tuesday that they had detected an Israeli spy plane flying near the Tunisian shores.
The sources indicated that the plane from the Nachshon-Shavit intelligence unit had been launched from the Nevatim Air Force Base south of the country.
The sources disclosed that the plane also flew near the shores of western Libya and that last week, military manoeuvres between Turkey and Russia took place in the Mediterranean.
The Turkish military manoeuvres coincide with the Turkish media’s talk about Ankara’s intention to establish two military bases in Libya, as part of its security cooperation with the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
A Turkish ministerial delegation arrived on Wednesday in the Libyan capital of Tripoli and met with Fayez Al-Sarraj, president of the UN-backed GNA.
“The president of the GNA, Fayez Al-Sarraj, received in Tripoli a high-level Turkish delegation including Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak, Head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation Hakan Fidan, and a number of other Turkish senior officials,” announced the GNA’s media office in a press statement.
A meeting between Turkish President Erdogan and Libyan President Fayez Al-Sarraj (AP)
The meeting discussed developments in Libya, international efforts to solve the current crisis, Turkish companies’ resumption of business in Libya, cooperation and integration mechanisms in the fields of investment, infrastructure and oil, as well as the approach adopted by Libya to develop the concept of development through partnership between the public and private sectors.
The meeting also included a follow-up of the implementation of the security and military memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries last November, especially with regards to cooperation in building Libyan defence and security capabilities, and developments on the memorandum of understanding on determining maritime powers.
