Conflicting reports about Trump’s and Haftar’s meeting – Policymakers in US ask for clarification on Libya’s policy
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The Trump administration has given the cold shoulder to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, less than two months after Trump appeared to show support for him in a surprise phone call, and is now rethinking its policy towards the country’s civil war, according to multiple sources in the US and the region.
The Guardian reports that encouraged by the 15 April call, Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) hired lobbyists in Washington in the hope of arranging an official visit by the field marshal, who is a dual Libyan-US national, or one of his top aides, to reinforce the impression that he had US backing in his offensive against the UN-backed government in Tripoli.
However, the lobbying firm, Linden Strategies – hired on a one-year, $2m contract – has yet to make progress as the tide shifts inside the Trump administration. With a volatile president, who has shown himself especially prone to persuasion from the Gulf monarchies and Egypt, policy could zigzag again, adds the Guardian .
On the other hand, the Libyan Express reported that the US President Donald Trump is going to receive Khalifa Haftar, a renegade commander leading forces positioned in eastern Libya and now attacking Tripoli for seizing power, at the White House. Sources, who asked to be unnamed, said the meeting between Trump and Haftar is being prepared and it is in the final stages. According to the same sources, the meeting in Washington D.c. could take place on June 15. The meeting, the sources say, will discuss the current war for Tripoli and how the US should help Haftar “terminate terrorism in Tripoli.”
Meanwhile Al Jazeera reports that a group of US politicians has asked President Donald Trump’s administration to clarify its policy on Libya, saying armed groups in the North African country were using confusion over the White House’s stance to justify engaging in conflict.
In a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, eight members of the House of Representatives urged the White House to “clearly” reject a military offensive launched by Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar to seize the capital, Tripoli, from the country’s internationally recognised government.
