LIbya: LIbyan National Army and Growing Power of Eastern Libya

Brief info on Libya before going into my blog:

The UN backed government in Tripoli is called the Government of National Account (GNA).

There is a rival government in Benghazi called the Libyan National Army (LNA). Khalifa Haftar is the leader of that government.

Okay . . .

Reuters has an of interesting article up on Libya. This one focuses on the tensions between those who want military rule and those who want democracy in the east. Yet there are some other interesting comments from the article:

But the scars of war in Benghazi show the difficulties of reconciling two rival camps - former soldiers and tribesmen in eastern Libya versus Islamists and urban elites in the west . . . Many Haftar supporters see little point in reconciling with opponents, whom they call “terrorists” or “Muslim Brothers”.

His forces depend on tribal alliances in eastern Libya. They have put out feelers to the west, where some have voiced support for Haftar, but their power base is in the east. 

The Tripoli-based central bank had almost $75 billion in foreign reserves but sends little cash to the eastern government, working only with the internationally recognised administration in Tripoli.



I read this and see a big divide between east and west. It almost sounds like the divide between middle America and the coastal elites. The article spends time noting how the east views the west, but not much on how the west views the east. One thing I did notice is the comment about how the east is filled with Islamists. I haven't really read much of that in various articles. Finally, Haftar has attempted to negotiate taking over all of Libya. That's an interesting piece of news, as well.

The last quote is the most interesting when it comes to the moves that the LNA has made in southern Libya. As I mentioned in a prior blog, Haftar recently took control of the El Sharara oilfield. Reuters has an update on that situation:

Eastern Libyan forces handed over control of the El Sharara oilfield to an oil security force, officials said on Tuesday, in a bid to encourage state oil firm NOC to restart production that has been halted since December.

The way that is written is a little tricky, because towards the end of the article Reuters mentions that the security force would be under the control of the LNA.

A Hart Energy article mentions that the LNA went on to take over another oil field called El Feel.

The LNA this month imposed a ban on any flights without its permission and carried out air strikes near El Feel after a plane arrived carrying a rival commander from Tripoli, home to the U.N.-recognized government. Haftar backs a rival administration based in the east.

From what I can tell, El Feel is within the vicinity of El Sharara.

So can I connect the dots and say that the LNA move in the south might be an attempt to secure a solid cash flow that it isn't currently getting from the central bank?

As has been mentioned in other blog posts I've written, this seems to be a constant pattern for those who aren't being provided funds by the Tripoli government. In fact, the reason given by the LNA for taking control of El Sharara was due to protestors who had shut down the oilfield's production. Is the LNA now playing the same game? If so, this is far more significant than any other previous protests.