France 24<\/p>\n
On Friday, a spokesman for\u00a0Haftar\u00a0<\/a>finally confirmed reports that the Libyan strongman was\u00a0receiving treatment in a Paris hospital<\/a>\u00a0after falling ill during a trip. Prior to that, Haftar had been conspicuous by his absence, having made no public appearances since the beginning of April.<\/span><\/p>\n Although the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) insists that its 75-year-old leader is \u201cin good health\u201d and is set to return to Libya within \u201ca few days\u201d, the rumour mill has already gone into overdrive with some reports suggesting the powerful field marshal has suffered irreversible brain damage or is even dead. The LNA has vehemently denied this, however, and over the weekend, the United Nations announced that its envoy, Ghassan Salame, had spoken to the military leader on the phone.<\/span><\/p>\n Years of chaos<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Libya\u00a0<\/a>descended into chaos in 2011, after a NATO-backed uprising overthrew long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi with rival administrations and militia groups seeking to take control.<\/span><\/p>\n Haftar has since been a dominant figure in Libyan politics and has been widely viewed as a contender in the parliamentary elections due to be held in the country by the end of this year. His army \u2013 which controls large swathes of eastern Libya, including some of the country\u2019s largest oil fields – backs the eastern Libyan administration which enjoys support from Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates and opposes the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli. Haftar has been a main obstacle in the implementation of the 2015 Libya Political Agreement \u2013 a UN-brokered deal that aimed to forge a unified Libyan government. His eastern administration refused to ratify it because of an article they perceived as an attempt to replace Haftar as the head of the Libyan army.<\/span><\/p>\n Haftar\u2019s recent absence, however, and the lack of any real indication of exactly when, and in what capacity, he can return home, already seems to have rocked Libya. On Wednesday, a convoy carrying Haftar\u2019s Chief of Staff,\u00a0Abdelrazak al-Nadhuri, was targeted in a car bombing near Libya\u2019s second-largest city Benghazi, Although Nadhuri escaped the suspected assassination attempt unharmed, William Lawrence, a Libya expert and professor of the George Washington University, said that the attack was likely perpetrated by jihadists trying to capitalise on Haftar\u2019s absence in a bid to create a power vacuum.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith Haftar in hospital, the No. 2 of the self-styled LNA is a good target at this point for them,\u201d he told FRANCE 24 in an interview on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n Lawrence added that although it is nearly impossible to verify Haftar\u2019s health condition at this stage \u2013 \u201cI have good sources saying everything from that he\u2019s dead, to that he\u2019s in good health and about to return\u201d \u2013 he noted that there have been deliberate attempts to spread rumours of his death \u201cto test alliances in the east and see what would happen\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is now talking about \u2018after Haftar\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s 75, he has a cancer and this is a very important moment in Libya dynamics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lawrence said that in the case Haftar doesn\u2019t return, or is incapable of resuming his job as head of the LNA, it would be possible to implement the Libya Political Agreement \u2013 but also an opportunity for jihadists to gain ground.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith Haftar gone, this creates an opportunity where you actually no longer have to debate over whether or not Field Marshal Haftar will be controlling the military. There\u2019s a big opportunity here for a lot of people so it\u2019s time to dial in and pay attention to what\u2019s going on there,\u201d he warned.<\/span><\/p>\n Infighting and lack of international efforts<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Haftar\u2019s absence also risk escalating tensions between the different factions within the LNA itself, where Haftar, thanks to his strong personality, has managed to bring various tribal militias together. Haftar belongs to the western Al-Furjan tribe, but the Cyrenaica tribes in the east, and especially the Al-Awaqir tribe near Benghazi, have long been opposed to the Al-Furjan tribe\u2019s dominance, and could very well try to opt for a power grab while Haftar is out.<\/span><\/p>\n Lawrence said that the international community will be crucial in securing stability in Libya should Haftar leave the political scene any time soon. He added that so far, it has not done enough to salvage the little stability that Libya still has left.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Americans have failed to step up, the UN has failed to step up, and the UN has gotten the sequence wrong, the messaging wrong. [The UN\u2019s] Salame has made a lot of mistakes that people are criticising him for, so whether or not they [the US and the UN] will cease this opportunity is the question.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While Haftar\u2019s chief of staff has been speculated as his most likely successor, the field marshal\u2019s two sons; Khalid and Saddam have also been groomed for the role, with both having been given high-ranking positions in the LNA.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" France 24 Conflicting reports over Khalifa Haftar\u2019s health have sparked a flurry of rumours over his role as the head of the Libyan National Army, and thus also Libya\u2019s future. Experts say his potential departure could spark major disarray. On Friday, a spokesman for\u00a0Haftar\u00a0finally confirmed reports that the Libyan strongman was\u00a0receiving treatment in a Paris hospital\u00a0after falling ill during a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[136,135,16],"class_list":["post-1675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-haftar","tag-infighting","tag-libya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1680,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions\/1680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}