By: IBRAHIM Jaafar
After several days of aggressive military advances, the spotlight is on Libya once again. For a long time it's been both the most strategically relevant yet most overlooked country in the Mediterranean. Now, some decisive maneuvers by a renegade general could pierce, or further complicate, the cloud of chaos that has descended on Libya since the 2011 civil war.
President Donald Trump spoke with Libyan general Khalifa Haftar Monday, praising his role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's vast oil resources even as Haftar's troops continue their offensive against the UN and US-backed government in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Trump and Field Marshal Haftar, the two discussed a shared vision for Libya's transition to a stable, democratic political system," the White House said Friday 19th April, in its official readout of the call.
While the US has primarily backed the UN recognized Government of National Accord which is based in Tripoli and led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, American diplomats and military officers have maintained contacts with Haftar whose Libyan National Army controls much of eastern and southern Libya.
Haftar, a one-time officer in former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's army, he supported Moammar Gadhafi in his 1969 coup, then found himself in Langley, Virginia in the 90s where he gained US citizenship, before returning to overthrow Gadhafi in the 2011 conflict. Since then, he has been one of many strongmen claiming pre-eminence in the nation's descent into disarray, based in the city of Benghazi and exerting most of his control in eastern Libya. He has also reportedly received some support in the past from France, Russia, the UAE and Egypt.
The head of US Africa Command, Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, told Congress last month that the Russians were backing Haftar in part to secure influence in a strategic area on NATO's southern flank.
"Behind the scenes there's no doubt about the fact they've supported the (Libyan National Army) with all kinds of equipment, people, training and the like and they've supported Haftar, who has moved now from the east to the west and essentially has taking a lot of real estate to get into a good position for leverage for diplomatic talks," Waldhauser told the House Armed Services Committee.
Asked why Moscow was backing Haftar, Waldhauser answered: "It gives them influence and it gives him influence in a key location in the southern (Mediterranean) on the southern part of the NATO, if you will, and it allows them then to reinvigorate some old Gaddafi-era contracts in the oilfield weapon sales and the like. So there's a strategic interest for them to be behind both sides, but primarily really Haftar."
Thus, the US, Russia, among other powers were directly or indirectly behind the two warring sides since they (the powers) remain unharmed by the loss or win of either sides...even though, the muslims land and its inhabitant will remain in more disarrays with much of their blood spill on the desert.
This goes to show who is actually in control and pulling the strings of the 'Arab Spring'. America replaces one set of traitors with another just like it disposes off worn out shoes. The difference now is that the masses have been duped into thinking they have initiated change when in fact it is a colonial project called the Greater Middle East Initiative.
The very masses who wish to break away from the colonial influence are being used by the U.S. to naively make the foothold of the colonialists firmer...what a strange affair it is!