Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received a Libyan delegation that includes the representative of the Presidential Council, Abdullah Al-Lafi, the person in charge of managing the affairs of the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Al-Taher Al-Baour, accompanied by the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Lieutenant General Muhammad Al-Haddad
The visit of a delegation from western Libya to Moscow surprised observers of Libyan affairs. While talk is mounting about Western military preparations in Tripoli in response to Russia’s growing influence in the center, south and east of the country, it seems that the authorities in the western region are coordinating politically with Russia, as analysts believe that the focus of the visit is to convince Russia to maintain the status quo.
The Libyan delegation included three influential figures in the decision-making race in Tripoli: Presidential Council member for the western region Abdullah al-Lafi, Chief of Staff of the outgoing Government of National Unity forces General Mohamed al-Haddad, and Foreign Minister-designate Tahir al-Baour.
The Western Libyan delegation had a meeting on Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which addressed a number of developments in bilateral relations in light of the transformations taking place in the region as a whole.
The meeting addressed the activation of the work of the joint committee, the return of Russian companies to Libya, especially in the oil, gas and infrastructure sectors, and Russia’s role in the region and how to cooperate and consult to find effective solutions through a real partnership.
The visit comes in conjunction with increasing talk about the imminent launch by UN Deputy Head of Mission Stephanie Khoury of a round of Libyan talks in Ghadames aimed at forming a new government.
Observers expect the visit to convince Russia to maintain the status quo, i.e. the continuation of the Presidential Council and only amendments to the outgoing government of Abdelhamid Dbeibeh.
The rivalry between the West and Russia over Libya is intensifying. While Western reports indicate that Moscow has begun deploying forces in the east, south and center of the country, Libyan activists are increasingly talking on social media about the Libyan-European Corps, which would be a counterpart to the Russian Corps.
According to the activists, the European Corps will be made up of purely Libyan elements, with foreign military personnel in charge of commanding and supervising it.
This information comes after a Western meeting held in Paris last month that brought together France, Italy, Britain and the United States to discuss the unification of western Libyan forces.
Western media outlets have launched an intensive campaign against Russia’s growing influence in Libya. French newspaper Le Monde said that Moscow has been increasing the transfer of troops and equipment to the North African region at an accelerated pace since the beginning of the year, strengthening its influence and potentially affecting migration flows towards Europe.
A report by the American magazine “Newsweek” considered that the Russian military presence in Libya is worrying, especially as tensions between Moscow and the West escalate in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
He pointed out that at least 1,800 Russian soldiers and mercenaries have been deployed to Libya over the past few weeks, with some of them transferred to neighboring Niger, where tensions between Moscow and Washington are escalating.
The newspaper claimed that “hundreds of soldiers from Russian special forces units, accompanied by thousands of mercenaries and regular troops, were transferred from Ukraine to Libya at the beginning of this year,” and that Russian military personnel and equipment have been seen at bases in at least ten locations in eastern Libya since last March.
Arturo Farfelli, director of the Rome office of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ACFR) and an expert on Libya, was quoted by Italy’s Nova news agency as saying that the family of army commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has a strong interest in establishing relations with the Russians because it would ensure their survival during a period of intergenerational transition.
On the other hand, Libyans in Tripoli are also trying to improve relations with Russia, so the Tripoli delegation’s visit to the Russian capital serves to counterbalance the Haftar family’s influence.
“The worrying aspect is the evolution from militia forces linked to the Wagner Group to a more organized Russian presence,” Farfeli said, noting that a more sophisticated Russian penetration strategy is emerging.
Russia’s military presence in Libya is of concern to the US administration, especially as tensions between Moscow and the West escalate over the war in Ukraine.
Farfeli believes that what is happening in Libya is not separate from the development of Russia’s presence in the Maghreb region.
In a television interview, Russian Ambassador to Libya Aydar Aganin emphasized that any Russian military presence in eastern and southern Libya is coordinated with the House of Representatives and Haftar’s forces, adding, “You should ask Haftar about that.”
He explained that linking Wagner to the Russian state is an attempt by Western countries to say that the Russians participated in the war, stressing, “We did not participate in any military operations in Libya, and on the ground there is no role for the Russian state.”
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov (left) arriving in Libya.
On May 9, the Russian President’s Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, discussed with the Chief of Staff of the security units of the Libyan National Army, General Khaled Haftar, the issue of uniting all Libyan national political and regional political forces, as well as the issue of resolving the military and political crisis in Libya.
🇷🇺🇱🇾 On August 22, 2023, at the invitation of the commander of the Libyan National Army, Marshal Khalifa Hawtar, a delegation of the Russian Ministry of Defense headed by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, arrived in Libya.
This is the first official visit of the Russian military delegation to Libya, prepared following the results of Russian-Libyan negotiations within the framework of the 11th Moscow International Security Conference and the Army-2023 military-technical forum.
During the visit, it is planned to discuss prospects for co-operation in combating international terrorism and other issues of joint action.
The Russian Embassy in Libya said on its official Telegram account that Bogdanov met with General Khaled Haftar and that “the main focus was on the task of unifying all national political and regional political forces in order to ensure the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Libya.”
In late April, the Libyan State Council hosted a meeting of the Libyan-Russian Communication Committee, which “touched on the relations between the two countries and the treaties concluded between them, and reviewed the mechanisms for activating them and ways to unify efforts to work on strengthening and developing relations with the Russian side.”
The Libyan-Russian communication committee at the State Council held its first meeting on December 19, 2023, chaired by First Deputy Speaker Masoud Obaid, during which a briefing was given on the council’s delegation’s visit to Russia.
National Unity Fatwa Declares Jihad Against Russian Forces in Libya
The campaign led by Sadiq al-Ghariani against the Russian presence comes in the context of the struggle for influence between the great powers in Libya.
Tripoli – Libya’s Dar al-Ifta in the government of national unity has declared war on Russian forces present in the country’s eastern and southern regions. The Dar al-Ifta, headed by Mufti al-Ghariani, who has been ousted by the House of Representatives since November 2014, issued a fatwa calling for jihad against the Russian forces represented by the African Legion, which it described as an aggressor, noting that it is a legal obligation for the people of Libya, especially the February Brigades.
“We followed the developments of the Russian intervention in Libya and the arrival of Russian troops and weapons in preparation for the entry of the African Corps into Libya and other neighboring countries,” Dar al-Ifta said, noting that “the Russian armed presence on Libyan soil, represented by the African Corps, is an occupation and invasion of the country by an infidel aggressor state.
“This defensive jihad against Russian forces does not mean falling under the control of another occupier, whether America, the European Union or any other country,” Dar al-Ifta said. “Western countries, led by America, denouncing the Russian presence and pretending to cooperate with the Libyans to resist it is a lie that we should not be deceived, as it is just an exchange of roles,” it added.
In its fatwa, Dar al-Ifta concluded that “the owners of the land who resist them should have the final say and decision, not those who are under their influence or collaborate with them, nor those who brought them in and enabled them in our country.” The fatwa follows up on statements made by al-Ghariani in late April, in which he described the Russian military presence in Libya as “an occupation by an infidel and atheist state that must be resisted and jihaded against.”
He called on Libyans who own weapons to assassinate those he described as “godless Russians” in the streets, to harass them and not to do business with them by buying and selling in areas controlled by Khalifa Haftar in southern and eastern Libya, and to consider them enemies and foreign invaders who must leave Libya, stressing that “those who own weapons in Libya should put their hands on the trigger and declare jihad against these criminals and not hand over their country to their enemies.”
Al-Gharyani, who has close ties with Abdelhamid al-Dabiba, the head of the outgoing national unity government, added that the presence of the Russian armies that Haftar brought to Libya is an occupation by an infidel state, as he described it, and stressed that “the Russian presence is considered an invasion no different from the French invasion of Algeria and the British invasion of Egypt decades ago,” and called for “expulsion by all and any means.”
According to Libyan circles, the campaign led by Sadiq al-Ghariani against the Russian presence, whether through Dar al-Ifta in Tripoli or through his active media platforms in Libya and Turkey, comes in the context of the struggle for influence between the great powers and the alignment of the Muslim Brotherhood and all Islamist currents in Libya with the Western powers against the Russians, as they are allies of General Khalifa Haftar, commander-in-chief of the National Army, and supporters in his battle launched ten years ago against armed groups and militias linked to the Brotherhood.
According to the same circles, al-Ghariani wanted to send a message that he disagreed with the visit to Moscow by a delegation from Tripoli that included Presidential Council member Abdullah al-Lafi, Chief of Staff of the Western Region Forces Mohammed al-Haddad and Foreign Minister-designate Taher al-Baour, and that he can be independent of the orientations of political actors in the west of the country.
Al-Ghariani’s fatwa further exacerbated the political and social divide in the country, which the House of Representatives government supported by perpetuating the state of jurisprudential division through the decision issued by its president to establish the “Supreme Fatwa Council” in the city of Benghazi.
Translation by Internationalist 360°
INTERNATIONALIST 360° 