Turkey’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin, visited Libya as efforts to resolve a political deadlock intensify, amid the shutdown of the country’s oil exports and risks to its fragile stability.
Kalin, head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT), met with Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, leader of the U.N.-recognized Government of National Unity, and other officials during his visit, a Turkish security source confirmed on Friday. Kalin emphasized Ankara’s desire for Libya’s conflicts to be settled through national agreement and de-escalation. He also reaffirmed Turkey’s commitment to maintaining Libya’s unity and stability.
Turkey, a NATO member, has played a key role in supporting Libya’s Tripoli-based government. In 2020, Turkey deployed military personnel to aid the government against eastern commander Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army.
Kalin’s trip marks the highest-level contact between the two governments since Dbeibah’s visit to Ankara in May. It comes at a time when Libya is grappling with a political standoff following the dismissal of long-serving central bank governor Sadiq al-Kabir. The Libyan central bank, which handles revenue from the country’s oil exports, is at the center of the dispute.
Eastern factions, angered by al-Kabir’s ousting, have enforced a shutdown of oil production, threatening to disrupt the four years of relative stability that Libya has experienced after a decade of turmoil following the 2011 uprising. The country has been divided since 2014 between rival eastern and western administrations.
