Hafter flies to Moscow again

By Gabriel Harrison.

Tunis, 12 August 2017:

Khalifa Hafter has this evening arrived in Moscow after his flight from Benghazi’s Benina airport was reportedly briefly delayed.

The armed forces commander-in-chief is due to see Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday. Hafter was in Russia last November for two days during which he met defence minister Sergey Shoygu as well as Lavrov.

Since then, a  close confidant Abdulbasit Al-Badri has been to Moscow twice, in March and again in early June for talks with deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov. This January Hafter was also helicoptered to the Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov when it was off the Libyan coast.

Hafter’s latest talks with Lavrov are likely to focus on the much-lauded 10-point declaration made between he made and with Presidency Council (PC) head Faiez Serraj in Paris

Reports that Serraj would also be travelling to Moscow this weekend have been denied by the PC .

Serraj was in Moscow in March where he met Russian trade and industry minister Denis Manturov.