TEHRAN (FNA)- According to Western media outlets, Saudi Arabia gave millions of dollars to Khalifa Haftar to help pay for his Tripoli campaign.
They say few days before Libya's renegade General Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive on the capital, Tripoli, Saudi Arabia offered tens of millions of dollars to help pay for the operation. The offer came during a visit by Haftar to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in the run-up to his April 4 military campaign.
The latest conflict in the North African country pits Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA) against forces allied to the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). The GNA controls Tripoli, situated in Northwestern Libya, while the LNA is allied to a parallel administration based in the East of the oil-rich country, which splintered into a patchwork of competing power bases following the overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
As a consequence, UNICEF says children are now suffering, and death like their long-suffering counterparts in Yemen – half a million and counting. A new report by UNICEF says "More than half a million children are at direct risk in the Libyan capital of Tripoli" and just like in Yemen, the UN agency has appealed to all parties "to refrain from committing grave violations against children".
The World Health Organization (WHO) also reported that many people have been killed and wounded over the past few days of fighting in this besieged country. Doctors without Borders warn that "refugees, migrants, and children are suffering from alarming rates of acute malnutrition."
Though all acknowledge the terrible conditions, the EU representatives claim "there is little we can do" because "Libya is a sovereign country" with which Europe cooperates. It's sickening hypocrisy. They have never bothered to demonstrate more than minimal interest in ending the needless violence.
Even so, the new report by UNICEF should put everybody at the UN on notice. They should tell "Fortress Europe" what it has done to Libya by thwarting the will and wishes of the world community and by violating international law and the UN Charter. Soon its leaders will wake up to the nightmare of a new humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean region. They better start erecting new razor-wire fences and walls along their shores to stop the influx of refugees – this time from Libya.
The crucial part of the picture is that this is the same regime-change cabal that overthrew Gaddafi in 2011 because they didn't want to allow Russia or China to horn in on their Libyan market. The United States, France, and Britain, which turned this once stable and prosperous nation into a failed state on the pretext of "democratization," cannot be allowed to escape responsibility, either.
Today, Libya is still a failed state - just like Yemen - as well as a haven for terrorist groups and proxies. The foreign policy establishment in the West insists it has a lock on wisdom, but a new report by the UN Support Mission in Libya points out otherwise. It confirms that "Libya's infrastructure continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate while basic services, including in health, water and electricity are eroding".
For that, the new reports by the UN and others suggest that words have not translated into action yet. The world should never be ashamed of doing the right thing by exposing a myth. The NATO-led intervention was immoral and the world should decide on what is right and stick to it. The UN must show some moral backbone to address the violence, those who fuel it, and hold them to account.
The UN should turn its reports into meaningful measures and call on the NATO-led interventionists and their Mideast lackeys to take responsibility for their actions and help stop the violence. This is the same war that Barack Obama admitted was the worst mistake of his presidency, and the same “democratic” intervention that President Donald Trump has described as “a catastrophe.”
There's a lesson to be learned here: In this deadly power struggle, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to take sides. The UN should resume serious peace talks and draw up an election roadmap, instead. Supporting two parallel governments vying for territory and oil wealth won't bring a swift end to the violence; it won't make a difference for half a million children. The situation will only get worse unless meaningful action is taken by the UN to immediately stop the violence.
No comments:
Post a Comment