A Turkish-flagged vessel suspected of ferrying weapons to Libya blocked the European Union’s naval air mission (Irini) from inspecting its cargo on Sept. 8. 

Irini is tasked with enforcing a United Nations arms embargo on the North African nation. “Turkey has once again denied Irini’s request for flag state consent to inspect the MV Matilde A, in accordance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2292/2016 on the arms embargo on Libya,” the mission stated in a Sept. 10 post on X.

The event was not unusual. By Irini’s own admission, this was the sixth time since 2021 that Turkey had rebuffed the mission's demands to inspect cargo thought to consist of arms deliveries to Turkish-led forces protecting the internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Ankara’s ally, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Coming days after Turkish spy chief Ibrahim Kalin’s Sept. 5 visit to Libya, the timing of the shipment has, however, fueled further speculation of renewed conflict in the oil-rich Maghrebian state amid an escalating row over the leadership of the Central Bank, which is responsible for divvying up oil revenues between rival factions led by Dbeibah and the eastern warlord Khalifa Hifter.

Kalin is believed during his meeting with Dbeibah to have pressed for a peaceful resolution of the impasse that deepened when the latter ousted Central Bank chief Sadiq al-Kabir. The banker fled to Istanbul, saying he feared for his life and calling his ouster a coup in an interview with Al-Monitor. Kabir’s increasingly vocal critiques of the GNU’s corruption-infused spending binges and his channeling of oil revenues to Hifter’s administration led Dbeibah to conclude that the Central Bank boss had thrown in his lot with the enemy.