Libya: Haftar currently heading to Tripoli

I don't know much about Libya. I recently argued that Haftar (leader of the Libyan National Army - LNA) was simply trying to negotiate a higher percentage of the oil revenue with his threats of marching to Tripoli. Other than wanting more oil revenue, I felt there were two drawbacks to him marching on Tripoli: first, various nations that back the LNA are telling Haftar not to march on Tripoli; second, various cities around Tripoli are not eager to support Haftar. Oh well, currently, it looks like his troops are on the march towards Tripoli.

Al Jazeera has the following:

"Haftar would like to force the hand of the UN and those attending in a way that does not exclude him, fearing that this conference may start a whole new path for Libya in the next few years and that he may not be included in that process," said Hafed Al Ghwell, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University.



In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the United States, France, Britain, Italy and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) called for an "immediate de-escalation of tensions" in Libya.

And they also have this:

Following Haftar's move on Thursday, the Tripoli-allied militias mobilised for "war" by deploying troops and moving weapons from the coastal towns of Misrata and Zawiya to areas around the capital.

Speaking from Benghazi in eastern Libya, Mansour El-Kikhia, a professor at the University of Texas, argued that Haftar was likely to succeed in his Tripoli push. "Even the residents of Tripoli are sick and tired of the status quo. It's not because of a love for Haftar. It's a desire for peace, quiet and normalcy. As things stand today, it's a mess. The militias are kleptomaniacs. They loot the country's wealth while people are going hungry."

So even though his international allies are saying don't go and even though various cities are sending troops to Tripoli to protect it, Haftar is still heading there.

Now there is a lot of interpretation going on regarding his move. I could have even done more quotes from the articles. But I'm doing two quotes here, one that sort of takes my position by saying that Haftar is just trying to gain an upper hand. He wants to be included in UN talks that are supposed to occur in the near future. This isn't necessarily aligned with my higher percentage of oil revenue belief, but there is the underlying desire for more say in how power/money is split. The other argument goes that Haftar will be able to gain control of Tripoli due to corruption.

Let's see how this goes. If he continues on to Tripoli, I would argue this is going to be a bloody fight as various cities (Misrata and Zawiya) around Tripoli do not support Haftar. Corruption or not, there appears to be strong opposition to him coming into Tripoli.