"Yes, I know about that. It just means that he will not be able to take Tripoli", Mohamed Taher Syala said on the sidelines of a forum in Rome, Italy.
The statement comes after the GNA operations command tweeted that a MiG-23 jet of Haftar’s National Libyan Army had been shot down near the Yarmouk military camp, south of Tripoli.
On 27 November, Turkey and the internationally recognised Libyan government based in Tripoli (GNA) signed a memorandum that set a new maritime border that runs through a zone in the Mediterranean that Greece and Cyprus claim as theirs. The GNA-Turkey agreement would allow Turkey to use Libyan airspace and enter territorial waters without permission from the local authorities.
Haftar ordered his troops in April to march on the capital to retake it from what he claimed were terrorists. Ensuring fighting has reportedly killed civilians and displaced over 100,000 people.
Libya is currently ruled by two competing governments. The country’s east is controlled by the Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Haftar, and its west is governed by the UN-backed Government of National Accord. Since April, the sides have been engaged in an open military confrontation.