With an ongoing war between several different factions in oil-rich Libya, there is a growing interest among regional powers in backing those factions, hoping to see some benefit from installing their favored side.
On the one side the Islamists have secured considered favor from both Qatar and Turkey, while the Egyptian military junta has been backing would-be military ruler Gen. Khalifa Hifter, and has the United Arab Emirates on their side.
The Obama Administration is now confirming that they are in the process of drawing up possible sanctions against some of those factions, with an eye on scaring countries away from backing sides the US doesn’t explicitly favor.
Exactly who that means is unclear, but Hifter’s long history with the CIA and the administration’s long-standing love affair with military rule in Egypt would suggest that it will be the Islamist factions that are the likely target.
