Libya: Haftar seeks cooperation with Syria’s Bashar al Assad to counter Turkey

A delegation, dispatched by renegade commander Khalifa Haftar, met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus to discuss cooperation between the two sides in a bid to counter Turkey in Syria and Libya.

The delegation, headed by Abdul-Rahman Al-Ahiresh, Prime Minister of the east-based administration backed by Haftar, arrived Saturday in Damascus.

The delegation discussed with the embattled Syrian leader cooperation between the two countries “in countering the Turkish moves and combating terrorism,” Libyan News Agency (LANA) reported.

The two sides have been brought together by Turkish military ambitions in their respective countries.

The Haftar-backed Libyan administration is opposed to Ankara on several fronts including Turkey’s military deployment in Libya to prop up the GNA and the Turkey-GNA maritime agreement signed in November last year.

Turkey has reportedly recruited around 2,000 Syrian mercenaries opposed to al Assad to counter Haftar’s military push to take over capital Tripoli, the seat of the GNA.

In Syria, Turkey has been found itself in a full flesh war with the Syrian army, in Idlib, near the Turkish border.

The clash between the two armies escalated over the past few days with both sides accusing each other of violating the 2018 Sochi agreement making Idlib a de-escalation zone.