{"id":8218,"date":"2020-11-24T06:35:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T06:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/?p=8218"},"modified":"2020-11-24T06:35:54","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T06:35:54","slug":"turkey-stops-germany-from-inspection-of-a-vessel-off-libyan-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/turkey-stops-germany-from-inspection-of-a-vessel-off-libyan-coast\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey Stops Germany from Inspection of A Vessel off Libyan Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Hans von der Burchard <\/a><\/h3>\n

November 23, 2020<\/span><\/h3>\n

www.politico.eu<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

The German government voiced concern after Turkey stopped the inspection of a suspicious vessel off the Libyan coast, which German forces had boarded as part of an EU-led arms control mission.<\/h3>\n

On Sunday, the German frigate \u201cHamburg,\u201d which is in the Mediterranean as part of the EU\u2019s Operation Irini<\/a> to enforce the U.N. arms embargo on Libya, stopped the Turkish vessel \u201cRosaline A\u201d about 200 kilometers off the coast because of suspicions that arms were being transported, German Defense Ministry spokesperson Christian Thiels said Monday at a press conference in Berlin.<\/h3>\n

German marines boarded the ship via helicopter but had to abort their mission after Turkey intervened diplomatically, Thiels added.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe take the incident very seriously,\u201d Andrea Sasse, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry, said at the same briefing.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe are concerned that there are incidents of this kind, that various countries are suspected of smuggling weapons into Libya,\u201d Sasse said. \u201cWe have made it clear several times in connection with the Berlin Libya Conference that we expect all participants of this conference to comply with the arms embargo, which still exists with regard to Libya. This of course also applies to Turkey.\u201d<\/h3>\n

For its part, Turkey protested against the actions of the German forces. \u201cWe deeply regret that our vessel, which as became apparent has not violated the arms embargo, was withheld from her route for hours under severe weather conditions and that during the inspection the crew were treated as if they were criminals,\u201d the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe protest this unauthorized and forceful act,\u201d the ministry said.<\/h3>\n

Under international law, the Irini mission needs to request consent from a vessel\u2019s flag state before a ship can be boarded for inspections. If there is no reply within four hours, this can be interpreted as \u201ctacit consent,\u201d the German Defense Ministry spokesman said, adding that was the case with the Turkish vessel.<\/h3>\n

Only after German marines had already boarded the vessel and started their search did Turkey react and say it did not agree with the inspection. \u201cUntil the interruption of the inspection, no prohibited goods could be found on board this freighter,\u201d Thiels said.<\/h3>\n

The German government voiced concern after Turkey stopped the inspection of a suspicious vessel off the Libyan coast, which German forces had boarded as part of an EU-led arms control mission.<\/h3>\n

On Sunday, the German frigate \u201cHamburg,\u201d which is in the Mediterranean as part of the EU\u2019s Operation Irini<\/a> to enforce the U.N. arms embargo on Libya, stopped the Turkish vessel \u201cRosaline A\u201d about 200 kilometers off the coast because of suspicions that arms were being transported, German Defense Ministry spokesperson Christian Thiels said Monday at a press conference in Berlin.<\/h3>\n

German marines boarded the ship via helicopter but had to abort their mission after Turkey intervened diplomatically, Thiels added.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe take the incident very seriously,\u201d Andrea Sasse, a spokesperson for the German Foreign Ministry, said at the same briefing.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe are concerned that there are incidents of this kind, that various countries are suspected of smuggling weapons into Libya,\u201d Sasse said. \u201cWe have made it clear several times in connection with the Berlin Libya Conference that we expect all participants of this conference to comply with the arms embargo, which still exists with regard to Libya. This of course also applies to Turkey.\u201d<\/h3>\n

For its part, Turkey protested against the actions of the German forces. \u201cWe deeply regret that our vessel, which as became apparent has not violated the arms embargo, was withheld from her route for hours under severe weather conditions and that during the inspection the crew were treated as if they were criminals,\u201d the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe protest this unauthorized and forceful act,\u201d the ministry said.<\/h3>\n

Under international law, the Irini mission needs to request consent from a vessel\u2019s flag state before a ship can be boarded for inspections. If there is no reply within four hours, this can be interpreted as \u201ctacit consent,\u201d the German Defense Ministry spokesman said, adding that was the case with the Turkish vessel.<\/h3>\n

Only after German marines had already boarded the vessel and started their search did Turkey react and say it did not agree with the inspection. \u201cUntil the interruption of the inspection, no prohibited goods could be found on board this freighter,\u201d Thiels said.<\/h3>\n

The incident resembles an earlier clash between a French frigate and Turkish ships in June, which led to high-level tensions<\/a> within the NATO military alliance: French authorities said their frigate had wanted to inspect a Tanzanian-flagged cargo ship suspected of smuggling arms to Libya but faced hostile behavior from three Turkish naval ships escorting the vessel.<\/h3>\n

Both incidents come amid a ratcheting of tensions<\/a> between the EU and Turkey. Last week, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned Turkey<\/a> that it must stop provocations such as the extension of gas exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean or risk EU sanctions.<\/h3>\n

At their upcoming European Council meeting on December 10-11, EU leaders are set to discuss relations with Turkey and potential restrictive measures against the country.<\/h3>\n

Sasse said that \u201cincidents of this kind\u201d off the Libyan coast \u201cwill certainly be discussed\u201d at the European Council.<\/h3>\n

Also on Monday, the governments of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom issued a statement<\/a> to welcome the outcome of U.N.-backed political dialogue in Libya earlier this month, which included a roadmap for elections in the war-torn country on December 24.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Hans von der Burchard November 23, 2020 www.politico.eu The German government voiced concern after Turkey stopped the inspection of a suspicious vessel off the Libyan coast, which German forces had boarded as part of an EU-led arms control mission. On Sunday, the German frigate \u201cHamburg,\u201d which is in the Mediterranean as part of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,46],"tags":[135,134,112,180],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8220,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8218\/revisions\/8220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistanintheworld.pk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}