ANKARA: Turkiye’s spy chief, Ibrahim Kalin, visited Libya this week as international stakeholders seek to resolve a political deadlock that has disrupted the country’s oil exports and jeopardized four years of relative stability.
Kalin, who heads Turkiye’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT), met with Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah and other key officials on Thursday. Al-Dbeibah leads the Government of National Unity, which is supported by Turkiye and recognized by the United Nations.
During his visit, Kalin expressed Ankara’s desire for a resolution to the conflicts in Libya through national consensus and emphasized Turkiye’s commitment to the country’s unity and stability.
Turkiye has been involved in Libya since 2020, providing military support to the Tripoli-based government in its fight against eastern commander Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army.
Kalin’s visit, the highest-level engagement between the two sides since Dbeibah’s trip to Ankara in late May, comes amid a political crisis triggered by the recent removal of veteran central bank chief Sadiq Al-Kabir. The central bank, which handles Libya’s oil revenues, is at the center of the standoff.
The political deadlock has led to a complete shutdown of Libya’s oil production by eastern factions, who are demanding that Al-Kabir’s dismissal be reversed. This development threatens to unravel the relative stability Libya has experienced over the past four years, following years of conflict and division between eastern and western factions since 2011.
