The Guardian view on Libya: this crisis is international | Editorial
Editorial
Khalifa Haftar’s foreign backers have egged him on – and civilians are paying the price
A Libyan man carries a picture of Khalifa Haftar during a demonstration to support the Libyan National Army offensive against Tripoli, in Benghazi, Libya, 12 April 2019.
The warlord Khalifa Haftar, who controls eastern Libya, has never disguised his ambitions. Once one of Muammar Gaddafi’s generals, he returned from exile in the US when the dictator fell in 2011, attempted to launch a coup three years later, repeatedly declared his intention to take Tripoli and has said that his country may not be ready for democracy.
So the professions of shock from his backers when he mounted his assault on the western capital, held by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord, cannot be treated with great seriousness. The only real surprise about his advance was its timing. By moving while the UN secretary-general was in the country, to discuss arrangements for a UN-organised conference intended to lead to elections, he destroyed muted hopes of a political solution and underscored his already evident contempt for the process. As the prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, complained, the response of many supposed allies was silence.
Mr Haftar apparently hoped to flip the ragbag of militias on which the GNA relies and saunter into Tripoli. But with his self-styled Libyan National Army stalled on the outskirts, the cost of his ambitions is becoming clearer. Libyans, who endured decades of Gaddafi’s rule followed by the bloodshed and turmoil after his overthrow by rebels with Nato support, now face a new chapter of suffering. More than 260 have already died, including civilians, and many more are wounded. Around 32,000 people have been displaced. Refugees held in the country’s brutal detention camps have also suffered. Last week’s attack on an LNA airbase in the south served as reminder that the attack on Tripoli may well ignite fighting elsewhere.
Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/25/the-guardian-view-on-libya-this-crisis-is-international
The article says Haftar in fact, lived in the US, over 20 years.... became?? became a US citizen with a rap sheet like he has?
In 1987, he became a prisoner of war during the war against Chad after being lulled into a trap and captured, then a major embarrassment for Gaddafi and represented a major blow to Gaddafi's ambitions in Chad. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Gaddafi. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in Langley, Virginia, in the US, gaining U.S. citizenship.[6] In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalifa_Haftar
France props this General up, Italy is against him, apparently a lode of Italy's oil and gas comes from Libya which makes good sense looking at a map.
Not sure what to make of this.
He's trying to topple a UN recognized government.
US Citizen? Still, it kind of seems like we shouldn't give him any support. I don't know what is behind all of this.
