U.S. changed its policy toward Libya…This is why

President Trump threw U.S. policy toward Libya into disarray during a phone call with Khalifa Hifter, a self-avowed autocrat and commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA). Earlier in April, Hifter and the LNA launched an assault on Tripoli, the capital and seat of Libya’s U.N.-backed and internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA).

Trump’s April 15 call — lending legitimacy and support to Hifter — undercut the messages of Pompeo and senior U.S. diplomats.

The United States has debated how to deal with Hifter since the Obama administration, as one of us describes in a forthcoming book on U.S. policies in the Arab world after 2011.

In 2015, as parts of Libya fell under the control of the Islamic State, segments of the defense and intelligence communities pushed for greater backing of Hifter. In the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, Hifter fought jihadist armed groups — some of them complicit in the September 2012 attack that resulted in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Some in the Defense Department saw in Hifter a strong partner for counterterrorism, a central focus of U.S. policy in Libya since 2012.

But for the first two years of Trump’s presidency, the White House continued Obama’s policy of backing the GNA. Fayez Sarraj, the prime minister of the GNA, traveled to Washington and met with Trump at the White House in December 2017. In December 2018, Pompeo met Sarraj in Brussels and affirmed Washington’s “strong partnership” with the GNA on counterterrorism and other issues. Trump has not appointed a special envoy for Libya policy or an ambassador to Tripoli. During an April 2018 meeting with the Italian prime minister, Trump announced that he had no intention of ramping up U.S. engagement.

Why the change, and why now?

While the impetus to support Hifter had always existed inside the Trump administration, three factors contributed to the timing of this policy change.

Trump’s April 9 White House meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi may have been the catalyzing factor. Trump previously demonstrated a penchant for dramatic policy shifts after conversations with foreign leaders. It was Sissi — a staunch supporter of Hifter and close ally of the UAE’s Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who pressed Trump to back Hifter, given his recent territorial gains.

Libyan politician and human rights, Mohamed Jibril Lafi, that the recent speech attributed to Washington, a diplomatic speech characterized by a balance in the rhetoric, while retaining US interests, including the strategy implicitly.

He said in a statement to «reference» that he did not notice a change in the letter only to emphasize that the forces located 5 km from the center of Tripoli is the Libyan Arab armed forces, pointing out that the US position is not easy to change randomly quickly.

He stressed that the United States cannot support the militias fighting the Libyan National Army knowing that among its ranks terrorist «Ziad Balaam» accused of bombing the US consulate in Benghazi 2012; killing the ambassador, and four other US employees.

Mohammed Jibril Al-Lafi added that the US position is clear and frank through continuous contacts and coordination with the army general command, especially Trump’s call to Field Marshal Hifter before the start of the battle, and coordination with AFRICOM forces in the strikes carried out in southern Libya on elements and leaders of al-Qaeda and fugitives from Mali and Boko Haram.

Al-Lafi stressed that the United States trusts the estimates of the Arab moderation countries, especially Egypt, which fights terrorism, combats extremism, and its active role in the stability of Libya. Field Marshal Hifter.

Political analyst Mohamed Rabie believes that the change in the US administration’s position now is due to several reasons, including the rapprochement between the Libyan National Army forces and Russia, especially after the meeting “ Hifter ” and “ Putin ” at the end of May 2019 in Moscow, the first time that the parties meet Washington is more concerned.

He told the «reference» that the US is most concerned now are the changes on the ground, especially after the confirmation of Moscow’s support for Libyan forces militarily, which Washington will not accept to continue in the presence of political and military competition between Moscow and Washington; especially in the Arab region, as the United States The United States will take a hostile stance against Russia’s orientations even if it agrees with the substance, by supporting the Russian move to support Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter against terrorism and militias in Libya, but it will not allow Moscow to uniqueness alone in this direction.

The political analyst concluded that the reason for the proximity of Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter with Moscow is because he sees him as supporting him with weapons and trained elements that help him in his war to control Tripoli; Weapons of Tripoli and Misrata militias.