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Libya’s Perpetual Chaos

Why Haftar’s Tripoli Offensive Could Break the Country’s Deadlock

By Ethan Chorin

Earlier this month, as the United Nations prepared for yet another conference to end Libya’s nearly eight-year-long conflict, General Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), ordered an assault on the capital, Tripoli. Read More

Trump can’t straddle two horses in this civil war

By David A. Andelman

In Libya, a frightening and intricate political corner of North Africa, the Trump administration risks putting itself in an untenable situation of backing two horses in the same race — the recognized government of Libya and the rebels knocking at the door of the capital. Read More

Trumpian storm clouds over Tripoli

By Jeffrey Feltman

In a late-night statement on April 7, Secretary of State Pompeo, discussing the escalation of fighting around Tripoli, said: “We have made clear we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftar’s forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital.” Read More

Libya: Tug of War and Foreign Policy Aspects

By Kirill Semyonov

After nearly two weeks of fierce fighting near Tripoli, it has become clear that the plan of Khalifa Haftar, commander of the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), who wanted to dictate his own terms of reconciliation, has failed. Read More

France’s double game in Libya

In backing a warlord, Paris may be dealing itself a losing hand.

By Paul Taylor

Like the police captain in “Casablanca” feigning outrage at gambling in Rick’s Café before being handed his winnings, France was “shocked, shocked” to find that the Libyan generalissimo whose forces it has covertly helped arm and train was marching on Tripoli. Read More

Haftar’s assault on Tripoli, a new beginning for Libya

By Wang Jin

On April 8, as the Libya’s major strongman, retired general Khalifa Haftar, organized a major military offensive against the Libya’s capital Tripoli with his Libyan National Army (LNA), the likelihood of new beginning emerged in the country that has been witnessing years of divisions, bloodshed and instability. Read More

Hifter’s March on Tripoli

By Giorgio Cafiero & Theodore Karasik

In a move that has long been expected, General Khalifa Hifter’s Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive to crush Islamist militias in Tripoli earlier this month, moving on the capital in what is a major escalation of the Libyan civil war. Read More

Moscow cultivates neutral image as Libya quakes

By Maxim A. Suchkov

Hifter, the strongman who controls two-thirds of the Libyan territory, ordered his forces April 4 to make a “victorious march” on Tripoli, the capital of the UN-backed government of Fayez al-Sarraj, supported among other groups by powerful Misrata militias. Read More