Libya: Wall Street Journal Profiles Khalifa Haftar

As those who follow Libya know, General Khalifa Haftar commands the eastern part of Libya via the Libyan National Army (LNA).

The Wall Street Journal recently did a profile on him. Some interesting comments:

Mr. Haftar’s growing international support was on display at summits in Paris in May and in Palermo, Italy, in November. There, he taunted Libya’s former colonial masters by threatening a boycott and then refused to attend a group dinner with the assembled Libyan and European leaders. Italian officials held a special meeting just for him and a smaller group of visiting leaders.

“Palermo showed that even Italy sees it as strategic to engage with him, and they actually went overboard accommodating his whimsical demands,” said Claudia Gazzini, a senior Libya analyst at International Crisis Group.



I think the one thing missing here is that Italy believes that Libya is in their sphere of influence. The Paris summit in May did not sit well with Italy. So Italy had reason to want this summit to be successful and Haftar no doubt knew this.

Mr. Haftar has threatened to march on Tripoli, seizing the remainder of Libya by force. Few expect him to follow through on those threats, as powerful militias stand in his way. None of this has stopped European states from courting Mr. Haftar.

There are probably other ways to gain support form powerful militias. As was mentioned in the article, Haftar seized key oil terminals earlier this year. He wasn't able to sell any of the oil due to world pressure. However, is it possible he wanted to use the oil revenue to buy off militias?

In other news, News 24 reports on potential upcoming elections:

Libya's electoral commission could organise a referendum on a new constitution for the strife-torn country in February if it gets security guarantees and funds, its head said on Thursday.

If I'm reading this right, this vote doesn't really resolve who actually will lead Libya. Libya is split in two between Eastern Libya under General Khalifa Haftar and the government in Tripoli. Voting on a new constitution, I suspect, doesn't necessarily resolve the fact that there are two governments along with a chaotic Southern Libya.