UPDATE-Int'l Law Will Determine Future Of Libya: Turkey

International law will determine Libya's future, Turkey's vice president stressed on Wednesday.

"Putschists should know that it will be the legitimate basis of international law that will determine the future of peace in Libya," Fuat Oktay said, adding that with Tripoli's "decisive stance" and Turkey's support, all "games and traps have been thwarted."

Oktay said Turkey, a longtime supporter of Libya's legitimate government, would back "its Libyan brothers until peace, tranquility and justice are established in the country."

He emphasized that those who until now "could not propose any approach towards resolving" the conflict between the war-torn country's internationally recognized government and renegade general Khalifa Haftar now "began to speak up" as Haftar began to lose territory.

Supporters of Haftar have recently called for a cease-fire in the wake of his losses to the Libyan Army.

Mediterranean, terror threat

Turkey is continuing its fight against terrorism both in and outside its borders and making history against those who try to imprison the country in the eastern Mediterranean, said Oktay.

Last November Turkey and Libya signed a maritime boundaries pact against Greek and Greek Cypriot efforts to box it out of its legitimate energy interests in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Oktay also said that traitors who try to hurt Turkey are being attacked in Operation Claw-Tiger, targeting PKK terrorists across the border in northern Iraq.

Turkey's operations Claw-Tiger and Claw-Eagle were launched last week to ensure the safety of the Turkish people and borders by neutralizing the threat of the PKK and other terrorist groups in the region.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

Libya has been torn by a civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The country's new government was founded in 2015 under a UN-led agreement, but efforts for a long-term political settlement failed due to a military offensive by Haftar's forces.

The UN recognizes the Libyan government headed by Fayez al-Sarraj as the country's legitimate authority as Tripoli battles Haftar's militias.

The government launched Operation Peace Storm this March to counter Haftar's attacks on Tripoli and recently liberated strategic locations including Tarhuna, his final stronghold in western Libya.

Writing by Dilara Hamit -