PARIS– France said Wednesday it was suspending its participation in a NATO Mediterranean maritime security operation owing to the behaviour of Turkey, in a new escalation of a growing dispute between the two alliance allies.
Paris and Ankara have exchanged bitter barbs over the last days concerning the conflict in Libya, with France accusing Ankara of smuggling weapons and dispatching mercenaries to Libya in violation of a UN embargo.
The defence ministry said France would no longer take part in the NATO operation until it gets a response to its concerns over the behaviour of Turkey.
“We have decided to temporarily withdraw our assets from the operation Sea Guardian” until France’s concerns are addressed, a French defence official, who asked not to be named, told reporters.
On June 10, France denounced an “extremely aggressive” intervention by Turkish ships against a French navy vessel participating in the NATO mission in the Mediterranean.
The Turkish navy was suspected of escorting a vessel transporting weapons destined for Tripoli’s Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj.
French Ministry of Defence sources told the daily Le Figaro, Paris did not take issue only not with the June 10 incident as the French navy has monitored several cases of arms smuggling to Libya by Turkish vessels. Paris, added the sources, expects NATO to come through now with a firm stance against Ankara’s repeated UN embargo violations.
Ankara supports the Islamist-dominated GNA against the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
In the latest war of words this week, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Turkey of “criminal responsibility” in Libya while Ankara slammed France’s “destructive” approach.
“Turkey’s aspirations to increase its footprint in the Mediterranean triggered geopolitical competition with France,” Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Ankara office told AFP.
“If not contained through efforts of third countries within NATO, this situation could evolve into geopolitical rivalry between the two allies,” he added.
Paris accuses Ankara of shipping arms to Libya in defiance of a UN embargo as well sending in thousands of pro-Turkey Syrian mercenaries fresh from the conflict there in a way that endangers the security of neighbouring countries and the whole Mediterranean Basin. Paris also opposes Turkish gas drilling activities based on a maritime border demarcation deal struck with the GNA last November.
“It does not seem to us healthy to maintain our assets in an operation supposed, among its various tasks, to control an embargo alongside allies who do not respect it,” said the French defence official.
Paris demands in particular “that allies solemnly reaffirm their attachment and their commitment to the respect of the embargo” on weapons to Libya.
According to NATO, the Sea Guardian operation was launched in November 2016, aimed at “carrying out maritime security capacity building, and providing support to maritime situational awareness and to maritime counter-terrorism.”
Macron said last week that he believed the naval incident between France and Turkey was worrying proof of his belief that NATO is in the throes of “brain death.”
Although it says it has the support of several NATO members in its conflict with Turkey, many experts see the Atlantic alliance as heavily influenced by Washington, which has green-lighted Turkey’s activities in Libya. Paris is working to mobilise the support of the European Union.
His concern about NATO also comes at a time when Paris is pushing for a rapprochement with Russia. Macron held lengthy video talks with President Vladimir Putin last week.
But speaking to the foreign affairs committee of the French Senate, Turkish Ambassador to Paris Ismail Hakki Musa insisted: “There can be no NATO without Turkey.”
Crises such as those in Iraq and Syria would be impossible to handle without Turkey, he boasted.
Moussa also confirmed Turkish reports according to which four French nationals were arrested by Ankara on suspicion of spying for France on conservative and religious groups. He said intelligence services are working on the issue.
According to Le Figaro, the Turkish ambassador’s statements before the Senate contained an inaccurate version of events and were perceived by the French military as provocatively threatening, which added to tensions between Ankara and Paris.
Turkey, along with its traditional foe Greece, joined NATO back in 1952, as the United States worked hard to ensure Ankara did not move close to the orbit of the USSR after World War II. Now, however, the handling of Turkish behaviour in the Mediterranean could lead France to have more doubts about the value of the Atlantic alliance.
Last year, President Emmanuel Macron has already called for more European defence integration to allow for speedier reactions to crises near Europe’s borders without NATO or the United States.
