The French frigate Provence, as part of Operation Marine Guard, forced a Turkish cargo ship to change course after it switched off its transporter, thus raising suspicions of the French navy.
Russian new agency RIA Novosti indicated today, in a report translated by Al Marsad, that Turkey systematically violated the arms embargo imposed on Libya, stating that this ship was transporting anti-aircraft missile systems for the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
The report confirmed that Ankara continuously supplies equipment and weapons to the GNA militants fighting the Libyan National Army (LNA).
The news report added that Turkey sides with the “gangs of the Sarraj government” fighting the Libyan National Army‚ with groups of terrorists brought from Syria. It indicated that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan escalated tension in the country by interfering in the Libyan crisis.
On 19 March, Al Marsad reported from its sources that there was a ship carrying weapons and equipment on the same day it sailed from Istanbul. Al Marsad also indicated that an active naval force in the Mediterranean was awaiting, as part of the implementation of the arms embargo agreed by the international parties in Berlin, as well as the European decision to monitor ships moving to Libya from the eastern Mediterranean.
This ship intercepted by the French navy is the same ship “ANA” that raised the Albanian flag. This ship survived the bombing of Tripoli Port, which targeted it and killed three Turkish officers while it was transporting a shipment of military equipment to Libya from Istanbul Port.
Sources told Al Marsad that the company that owns the ship changed its name from “ANA” to “PRAY” and was already on its way to western Libya raising the flag of the Republic of Sierra Leone before the French frigate Provence forced it to change its destination.
*Source: Al Marsad
