In what marks a major shift in US policy in Libya, the US State Department issued a statement late Thursday demanding that Gen. Khalifa Hafter and his self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) stop trying to conquer the capital city of Tripoli.
The US had initially opposed the LNA invasion of Tripoli in April, but following a talking-to from Saudi Arabia and other nations seen as pro-Hafter, President Trump endorsed Hafter and suggested he’s going to play a big role in Libya in the future. This remained the US position up until now.
The change seems to be a function of recent news about Russia backing Hafter, with the State Department accusing Russia of “exploiting the conflict against the will of the Libyan people.”
A former general in the Gadhafi-era military, Hafter later was a CIA asset and participated in several failed coups d’etat. His force has substantial territory in eastern Libya, but has struggled to move deep into Tripoli.
It’s not clear if this means the US is returning to supporting the UN-backed unity government, or simply taking an anti-Russia stance. Overt efforts to oppose Hafter are likely to face a backlash from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other nations heavily invested in the idea of a military ruler in Libya.
Eastern Libya and Tripoli (actually Tripolitania) are the historical division of Libya going back to Roman times. Apparently they can only be held together by some kind of dictatorship. Qaddafi became dictator mostly with domestic (tribal) support. Hafter relies heavily on foreign support which means that even if he becomes the next Qaddafi his rule will always be vulnerable.
What has followed the overthrow of Qaddafi is another textbook example of unintended consequences. I have no compunction to write that what was done to Libya by NATO led by the Obama administration was a crime against the people of Libya.
“unintended consequences”….actually, destruction of infrastructure and the toppling of established government has completely predictable results.
And has the desired impact on the goals of the MIC and associated institutions: Profits, Promotions, Port, Pillage and Plunder.
“unintended consequences”? Pray tell me what were the INTENDED consequences of destroying a nation and killing its beneficent leader? And Trump has to put up with a lynch mob because of some phone call while Hillary and Co. get to walk after their hand in all this death and destruction? What a backwards world!
Well, trump has been giddy to continue all violence sanctioned by the previous administration. He has authorized air strikes into Libya from the new US base in Niger. For all his bloviating towards “lies in the Iraq war”, he has never uttered a word about investigating those lies. Instead, he uses the Iraq/Syria border to obfuscate the fact he has escalated the US combat mission in both countries.
I think you confuse ” lynch mob” with “investigation”, actually they are opposite. See, if it were “lynch mob”, he would have hung years ago, that’s how it works. If you don’t want your holy leader investigated, try finding one that isn’t a mobbed up stooge next time.
The deeper region of Libya is a third space and separate ethnic group that was always independent until the Italians took the whole as a single colony in 1911. They failed ever to achieve any unity, or even any effective governance. The disunity had grown since the Napoleonic Wars, when the Ottoman Sultan was cut off from those as his supposed subunits of government.
A fourth semi-independent region and ethnic group is in the mountains along the western border. Those people of the mountains were always very independent, and gave a hard time to Ottomans, French, and Spanish colonial projects, before they fought the Italians too.
Within those big four divisions there are smaller ethnic divisions. Qaddafi was from one of those lesser divisions, and he exploited that in ways that made it more divisive for his own group and some other small groups.
Libya is fragments, but more important, it has never been anything other than fragments, and everything that has happened for 200 years has made that ever worse, never better.
At this point, it isn’t reasonable even to call it one country. It is a space, to which we assign a name, and lots of groups of people who’ve never been governed together in any real way.
Mark, thanks for your additions. When I was much younger than I am now I collected stamps. I remember that there were tamps marked Cyrenaica and stamps marked Tripolitania. Were these issued during the Italian colonization?
A remarkable thing happened when that “space” was mostly occupied by the Germans in WW2. Rommel still needed water for his Mark II and III tanks. Water engineers drilled for water but reported that in many cases the water was too saline to be used in the tanks. Nobody in Berlin woke up and said “hey, there must be oil there!”
The oil is far out in the desert. It actually seeps to the surface, and formed black spots of tar. It is cheaper than water to drill it. It is also some of the best oil in the world, hardly needing refining for many uses, the ultimate “light sweet” crude, which is what makes it so important to Europe to make their sulfur free Diesel.
It wasn’t discovered earlier because nobody went out there into that vast trackless desert. I find the whole story full of fascinating what if.