Turkey prevents Bundeswehr inspection on suspicious freighter

According to SPIEGEL information, the government in Ankara prevented the Bundeswehr from checking a suspicious Turkish cargo ship at the last minute. The Turkish freighter “Rosaline A” was stopped on Sunday about 200 kilometers north of the east Libyan city of Benghazi by the German frigate “Hamburg” because the EU-led mission “Irini” had indications that weapons were illegal for the Libyan on board Civil War being smuggled.

What at first sounds like a routine mission turned into a scandal. Turkey protested only hours after the German soldiers who were commissioned by the EU to curb the illegal arms smuggling to Libya boarded the ship in the late afternoon. Specifically, Ankara informed the EU mission that the control would not be approved.

Because of the refusal from Ankara, the German soldiers had to stop checking the cargo immediately and disembarked at sunrise on Monday. The “Rosaline A” was able to continue its voyage towards Libya. According to the plan, the container freighter should now call at Misrata.

The incident shows once again how difficult it is to stem the smuggling of arms into Libya. Turkey makes no secret of the direct support of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and sends weapons and mercenaries with ships and airplanes. Operation “Irini”, however, is quite powerless without Ankara’s cooperation.

The Bundeswehr had already stopped a cargo ship on its way to Libya in the summer. The suspicion of arms smuggling was quickly confirmed because the freighter had a special type of kerosene on board that is only used for fighter jets.

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