Gen. Khalifa Hifter, the head of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), has had a long list of allies. Starting as a participant in Gadhafi’s 1969 military coup, he rose steadily through the ranks before being captured by Chad during the 1987 war. He was disavowed by Gadhafi, but by 1988 was a top figure in the CIA-backed rebels.
The rebel force was short-lived, however, and Hifter was brought to the US as a CIA supported “refugee” in 1990. He participated in at least one other failed rebellion before the 2011 Arab Spring, when he claimed to be the head of the post-Gadhafi military. Power struggles led to him announcing a military coup in 2014 before finally being named the head of the LNA, a faction allied with the Tobruk government.
Now Gen. Hifter is fighting against the US-backed “unity” government, and is looking for an increasing amount of Russian support as a way to cement his position. Russia’s support so far is seen as fairly limited, agreeing to print money for the “central bank” based in one of his cities and providing some defensive advisers. Hifter’s top allies, however, call greater Russian involvement on their behalf “inevitable,” and will eventually secure Hifter a major position in another, even-more-unity government.
Analysts say the end-game for Hifter is to come to some sort of deal where he recognizes the “unity” government, and vice versa, and is named the absolute commander of the armed forces, which in a nation like Libya effectively makes him the nation’s ruler.
In bed with hiltler…??? Makes perfect sense in Bizzaro world…
Hifters name looks like Hitler’s on paper but he has been supported by the United State for over 40 yrs . So it should not be so bad if Russia now selects him for Libya’s top position too .
So Russia maybe will install the new ruler for Libya too , After Assad takes control of Syria . Russia will be best friends of Egypt Libya and Syria .. We should not complain if Russia brought peace to these countries . Russia is Supporting they same Libyan general we tried to get to take down Gaddaffi twice
Russia deserves to be ahead of us in the Mid east they approached the situation with thoughtful careful ideas and methods that caused the least damage for the most people . I’ll say it again the United States supported the wrong side every time in every country accept Israel . I’am glad Russia came to Syria there never would have been much of a civil war in Libya or Syria if the United States would have minded her own business . Lets help and work with Russia in these countries . But now Russia will get the credit for bringing the peace .Thats just fine peace is what we want not credit .
“the United States supported the wrong side every time in every country accept Israel”
In Israel too. Most of all, since there were more options, and we chose to pander to the worst among them.
Russia won the favor of all of these countries by being a good neighbor and offering help and treating their government leadership with respect .. We lost the favor of all these countries by constantly trying to overthrow their leadership and install democracies in Muslim countries .
Typical CIA.