By: Kayhan Int’l
Libya is again being embroiled in a crisis as the various armed factions battle each other for control of the divided country which the US, West European powers, and the Persian Gulf reactionary regimes, have destabilized and virtually destroyed in their greed for control of its oil wealth.
Khalifa Haftar, a 75-year old veteran of Libyan politics and longtime CIA agent, recently ordered his self-styled Libyan National Army (NLA) to advance on the densely populated capital, Tripoli, where the United Nations-backed government is seated.
At the moment battles are raging around Tripoli and there are fears of a full-scale civil war in the North African state, which is still reeling from the NATO-backed intervention of 2011 to oust and brutally kill longtime strongman Mu’ammar Qadhafi.
Haftar’s announcement of an advance on Tripoli came as the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was wrapping up a peace-brokering mission in the country, in which he met with Haftar as well as the UN-backed prime minister, Fayez as-Serraj.
Guterres lamented: "I leave Libya with a heavy heart and deeply concerned. I still hope it is possible to avoid a bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli.”
The developments have come ahead of UN-brokered peace talks slated for April 14-16.
As a matter of fact, it is US state terrorism in West Asia and North Africa that led to the wholesale destruction of Iraq and Syria, and now produced figures like the CIA-trained Hafter in Libya, where Washington’s involvement is resulting in black Africans being sold as slaves in open-air markets.
The situation is alarming, but the criminal regime of Donald Trump seems to relish the situation, and is waiting for an excuse to militarily invade and occupy oil-rich Libya.
If Haftar succeeds in seizing power, he would control the largest oil reserves in Africa, although he already controls many oil fields.
His ambition to rule is decades old. He was among a group of officers involved in the coup against King Idris that brought Coloner Mu’ammer Qadhafi to power in 1969. After being taken prisoner by Chad in 1987 while working for Qadhafi, he turned his back on the Libyan leader.
After his release, which was secured by the US, Haftar joined the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, an opposition group supported by the CIA, to prepare an army that could overthrow Qadhafi. He was eventually flown to Langley, Virginia — where the CIA is headquartered — and lived there for two decades, working with the CIA to topple the Libyan leader from abroad. He and 350 fighters loyal to him were admitted into the US and given refugee status. His men are trained by American intelligence officials in sabotage and other guerilla skills.
In 2014, Haftar, shortly after returning from the US to Libya, seized control of Benghazi. In 2016 he took control of key positions in the "oil crescent” from the UN-backed government.
According to reports, the UN-backed government of Prime Minister of as-Sarraj is also uninterested in talks with Haftar to resolve the crisis, which means the situation is bound to worsen.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, and certain European states, like France, seem to be lined behind Haftar.
All of this augurs misfortune for the people of Libya, who have been trapped the devil and the deep blue, with anarchic elements, such as al-Qa’eda and Daesh, spreading around the country, and involved in the US-backed terrorism to tear apart the country.
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