The Libyan warlord’s growing ties with Tel Aviv not only contribute to the turmoil gripping Libya but also undermines its internationally-recognised government.
Over the past few years as Libya grappled with conflict, chaos and fragmentation, renegade warlord Khalifa Haftar, who controls the port city of Benghazi, has cultivated strong military ties with Israel to boost his armed campaign against the UN-recognised government of Fayez al Sarraj.
Haftar has convinced Israel and other regional players, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, that his foriegn policy goals compliment theirs.
In return, Haftar has received arms and intelligence support that allows him to destabilise the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), which was established in 2016 with an aim to reduce violence and establish some order in the country.
Although Haftar most recently struck a cautious note regarding his ties with Israel, the former military general has attracted a lot of media attention for having backdoor meetings both with the Israeli government and its intelligence agency Mossad.
In one of the meetings, reportedly mediated by the UAE in the summer of 2018, Israel agreed to supply weapons to Haftar-led Libyan National Army (LNA).
The cache included sniper rifles and night vision equipment, according to media reports.
Many say his support from Israel is based on the notion that he’s fighting so-called Islamic extremism and Daesh, but US-based journalist Richard Silverstein’s investigation reveals Haftar’s politics is driven more by vengeance and less by establishing peace in Libya.
Silverstein quotes a source from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), saying: “A friend of our friend – and an enemy of our enemy – is our friend, and Haftar is a friend of Egypt, Jordan and UAE. He also fights Daesh.”
The growing nexus between Israel and Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states has been advancing despite Western powers holding conflicting views about Haftar, thinking that his presence could undermine Libya’s post-revolution term.
In early July this year, the UN condemned the deadly airstrike carried out in northwestern Libya, killing dozens of civilians. It is widely believed that the airstrike was ordered by Haftar.
The UAE, which is part of the GCC and has growing ties with Israel, was criticised by the UN in June 2017, which held the oil-rich country responsible for supplying helicopters and other military aircraft to Haftar and violating a UN arms embargo.
For Israel, Libya carries a strategic weight. One of its main motives behind aiding Haftar is securing maritime routes in the Eastern Mediterranean — a resource-rich archipelago where Israel has built a gas pipeline to supply gas to Europe.
Besides that, Haftar occupies oil-rich territories of Libya from which Israel can potentially benefit.
Born in 1943, Haftar rose to prominence after taking part in the1969 military coup, toppling Libya’s King Idris. As the king was replaced by Gaddafi, he soon became his top military officer.
Gaddafi tasked him with invading Chad in the 1980s, where he was captured in 1987 along with several hundred Libyan soldiers. Gaddafi was quick to disown him and his troops, denying that he had ever sent any soldiers in the region.
Haftar was released, thanks to US intervention, and Washington offered him political asylum in Virginia. He spent the next 20 years there, living close to the CIA headquarters.
To boost the anti-Gaddafi revolt in 2011, Haftar returned to Libya and contributed to the end of the infamous Libyan dictator.
After the killing of Gaddafi, Libya slipped into civil war with several groups seeking control of the oil-rich country.
He led one of the armed groups called LNA and ever since he has earned the reputation of being one of the most polarising figures in the country.
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Is an Israeli air defense system shooting down Israeli drones in Libya?
While there is an arms embargo on the war-torn country, reports say UAE supplied an Israeli system to the Libyan warlord.
The United Arab Emirates has reportedly supplied an Israeli air defense system to Libya’s strongman General Khalifa Haftar to counter Turkish drones supplied to his rival as fighting to capture the capital of Tripoli intensifies.
According to a report in The New Arab, the system was supplied to counter Turkish drones as fighting around the capital of Tripoli picked up steam in recent days in an attempt to defeat the Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Fayez Sarraj.
The report alleges that the defense system was produced by an Israeli defense company and transferred it to Egypt where fighters loyal to the warlord were trained on it before it was moved to Libya.
While it is unclear who had trained the Libyans, there have been multiple reports of Israelis training Haftar’s forces in street warfare in territory under his control during August and September.
Though the United Nations Security Council has repeatedly renewed the arms embargo on Libya since 2011, both sides have received significant military aid by numerous countries.
Haftar who sits in Tobruk in eastern Libya has been heavily backed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, France and Russia since 2014.
Russia and the UAE have been heavily supporting Haftar’s forces with various weapons systems, including a Pantsir air defense system which was destroyed by the GNA in November, MiG-21 fighter aircraft and Mi-24/35P helicopter gunships as well as armored vehicles.
The Tripoli-based GNA led by Sarraj is supported by Qatar and Turkey which has sent troops as well as Turkish-backed Syrian rebels to fight in the war-torn country.
While Israel and Libya have no relations, in December Abd al-Hadi al-Hajj, foreign minister to Haftar’s interim government told The Jerusalem’s Post sister publication Maariv that he hopes Libya could establish normal relations with Israel if the Palestinian problem was resolved.
“We support the rights of the people, including all of the rights of the Palestinian people. But we support regional peace, oppose terrorism, and fight it in Libya as well,” he told the publication while in Paris.
Last week a Harop loitering drone produced by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in Azerbaijan and exported to Turkey to be used by Ankara’s military crashed near the town of Dirj.
The Harop is a small drone which according to the company’s website is a combination of the “capabilities of a UAV and a lethal missile.”
In July two Israeli-made Orbiter-3 tactical drones were also shot down in Libya by troops allied with Haftar.
The two drones manufactured by Aeronautics produced in Azerbaijan which were part of a three-unit donation by Turkey, were recovered by troops some 40km southwest of the Libyan capital of Tripoli in the small town of al-‘Aziziya while the other was recovered in the Sidra district home to the war-torn country’s largest oil depot.
Aeronautics, which had it’s export license reinstated in February after a two-year suspension, denied knowing anything about the incident in Libya.
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