TRIPOLI (AFP) — Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah expressed concerns Thursday that the North African country could become a “battlefield,” following reports of Russian weapon transfers from Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s fall.

“We have concerns about moving international conflicts to Libya, and that it will become a battlefield between countries,” Dbeibah said during a news conference.

Oil-rich Libya has struggled to recover from years of conflict since the 2011 North Atlantic Treaty Organization-backed uprising that ended dictator Moamer Kadhafi’s four-decade rule.

It remains divided between the United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by military leader Khalifa Haftar.

In recent days, reports indicated Russian forces were transferring military equipment from Syria’s Tartus naval base and Hmeimim air base to eastern Libya, where the rival administration has received Russian support for years.

“No one with an ounce of patriotism wants a foreign power to come and impose its hegemony and authority over the country and the people,” Dbeibah said.

Such a presence, he added, could only be tolerated “within the framework of agreements between countries for training, instruction or equipment, but for forces to enter by force and against the will of the Libyan people, we totally reject it.”

While Dbeibah did not confirm the weapon transfers, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has said that “Moscow is transferring resources from its Syrian base in Tartus to Libya.”

“It’s not a good thing,” Crosetto told La Repubblica on Wednesday.