FILE PHOTO: President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan adresses the audience during the official opening of the new Cambridge Central Mosque, in Cambridge, Britain, December 5, 2019. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Press Office/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday Turkey is ready to provide Tripoli any military support it needs after Ankara and Libya’s internationally recognized government signed a security deal.

“We will be protecting the rights of Libya and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean,” he said on A Haber TV. “We are more than ready to give whatever support necessary to Libya.”

Khalifa Haftar, who leads forces in eastern Libya, “is not a legitimate leader...and is representative of an illegal structure,” Erdogan said after meeting in Istanbul with Fayez al-Sarraj, prime minister of Libya’s Government of National Accord.