Turkey’s spy chief meets Haftar in rare Libya visit

Turkey’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalın met eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi Monday according to Turkey's Daily Sabah. It was the first senior-level contact in years between Ankara and Haftar, whose self-styled Libyan National Army controls much of eastern Libya. Ankara remains a key backer of the UN-recognised government in Tripoli.

The talks, attended by Haftar’s commanders, centred on bilateral ties. They coincided with a Turkish naval visit to Benghazi, where Libyan ground forces chief Saddam Haftar boarded the corvette TCG Kınalıada for discussions with Turkish officers. Turkey’s defence ministry said the exchanges aimed to support the goal of a “single Libya, single army.”

Earlier this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted Tripoli’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Istanbul, highlighting Ankara’s dual-track diplomacy. Libya has remained divided since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Qaddafi, with Turkey now broadening its contacts across the fractured state while maintaining its influence in the west.