German frigate tries to spy on Turkish freighter off Libya, but Ankara intervenes | WORLD

A German Navy frigate stopped a Turkish freighter bound for Libya in the Mediterranean on suspicion of arms smuggling in violation of the embargo.

The German frigate “Hamburg”, which has been reinforcing the naval mission “Peace” of the European Union since last summer to comply with the UN arms embargo on Libya, stopped yesterday afternoon, according to information from Spiegel, the turkish charger Rosaline A about 200 km from Benghazi and a group of German soldiers got on the ship and began to check its cargo.

Ankara intervened – Control prevented

The relevant instructions for the rosary in Rosaline A were sent to the German Navy from the headquarters of the EU Operation “Peace”, which is currently headed by a Greek officer. However, the control was prevented at the last minute, after a strong protest from the Turkish government, which stated that it did not give its approval. Characteristically, the German inspectors had already boarded the “Rosaline A” and were forced to leave without doing anything, while the ship continued its journey towards the port of Misrata.

In return, Turkey has been directly and actively supporting the internationally recognized Libyan government in Tripoli for months, sending weapons and mercenaries by ship and plane to war zones. The objective of Operation Peace is to make it difficult for weapons to reach Libya through the Mediterranean. Last summer, the same German frigate stopped the tanker “MV Royal Diamond 7”, which turned out to be transporting a type of kerosene from the United Arab Emirates to Libya, which is used only by combat aircraft, while in June it was prevented from operating a French frigate on a Turkish ship, which was accompanied by warships, was carrying weapons to Libya in an incident that escalated tensions between Paris and Ankara. It was not immediately clear if weapons were found on Rosaline A, which set sail from Turkey to Mizrata, Libya, over the weekend.