Libyan Military Bans Iranians, Yemenis, and Pakistanis From Country

Libya’s military has announced a full-scale ban on all people from Yemen, Iran, or Pakistan entering the country, adding to  list that already includes Sudanese, Bangladeshis, Syrians, and Palestinians. The ban was signed by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who has previously claimed to be backed by the CIA.

Gen. Hifter insisted that the ban on these nationalities was based on the need to preserve “security and stability,” and that people from such countries were more likely to join the various Islamist factions in the country, particularly those in Benghazi.

Gen. Hifter is the chief of the army for the Western-recognized government, which itself only holds a small amount of territory along the Egyptian border. In practice that means that these people are only really banned from flying into Tobruk, their de facto capital, or entering through Egypt.

The other self-proclaimed government in Libya, based in Tripoli, has no such ban, and they only control a handful of cities in the west. Many of the cities are not held by either side, being held by various local groups, or the ISIS affiliate, and they similarly have no bans on nationalities.