Turkey has criticised the decision of European foreign ministers as biased

Ankara criticizes EU sanction on Turkish shipping company for violating embargo in Libya

photo_camera AFP/ADEM ALTAN - The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mevlut Cavusoglu

Turkey on Tuesday criticised as "biased" the decision by European Union (EU) foreign ministers to sanction a Turkish shipping company for breaking the UN arms embargo on Libya. 
 
In a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Ankara criticised the EU for not sanctioning countries and companies that send weapons to Marshal Khalifa Hafter, who dominates the east of the country and fights against the UN-recognised government in Tripoli. 
 
"Ignoring countries and companies that send arms to the coup leader Hafter by land and air, especially to the United Arab Emirates, is a clear indicator of the EU's biased attitude," the note states. The EU yesterday imposed sanctions on three entities and two individuals for violating the arms embargo on Libya, including the Turkish company Avrasya Shipping. 

The sanctions involve the freezing of assets and prohibiting European entities from making funds available to them. Turkey added that if the EU wants stability in the region it must "cooperate with Turkey" and regretted that this decision comes at a time when Ankara is "making efforts to reduce tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean". 
 
Turkey is, together with Qatar, the main supporter of the National Accord Government supported by the UN in Tripoli (NAC), while Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan support Marshal Hafter's aspirations. 
 
The EU and the UN, for their part, are attempting to regain their lost leadership position vis-à-vis Ankara and Moscow in the efforts to resolve the civil war that has been raging in the country since NATO contributed to the victory of the heterogeneous rebel groups over the dictator Muammar al-Qadhafi in 2011. 

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