Haftar sets sights on West Libya

Libyan military leader seeks to bring the rival authority to negotiating table

After tightening his grip on eastern Libya, military leader Khalifa Haftar now wants to extend his influence across the west where the UN-backed unity government is based, experts say.

One of the most powerful players in the Libyan conflict, the 75-year-old field marshal heads the Libyan National Army (LNA) in the east.

He has been bolstered by a string of military victories in eastern parts of the country, which has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Barely a week after seizing key oil export terminals from a rival militia, his forces on Thursday announced the “liberation” of Derna, the last eastern city beyond his control, from radical Islamist militias.

Capable on all fronts

“The LNA has once again proved its capability to operate on multiple fronts and achieve military success,” said Mohammad Eljarh, chief executive of research firm Libya Outlook based in the country’s east.

Haftar’s enemies are ultimately his biggest advantage, he added.

“With their ill-informed and ill-organised military adventures, they make it easy for Haftar to justify the expansion of the LNA into the western and southern regions,” Eljarh said.

Until 1963, Libya was a federal union divided into three administrative states — Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the west and Fezzan in the south — fault lines that remain to this day.

In recent years, Haftar has repeatedly vowed to “liberate the capital”.

But any push westwards is likely to face resistance particularly from armed groups in the western city of Misrata that are among the country’s most powerful and hostile to Haftar.

An agreement struck in Paris in May between four Libya leaders including Haftar and GNA head Fayaz Al Sarraj to hold elections in December has done little to calm tensions.

After Haftar announced he was handing over the recaptured ports to the eastern authorities, the GNA urged the UN Security Council to block any “illegal” oil exports.

Haftar has been bolstered by a string of military victories in eastern parts of the country, which has been wracked by chaos since the 2011 uprising.