By Hadi Fornaji:
Tunis, 18 September 2017:
The head of the Libyan National Army, Khalifa Hafter, arrived in Tunis last night to take part in a fresh diplomatic initiative to solve the Libyan crisis.
This morning, in keeping diplomatic protocol, he first met Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi for talks on the situation in Libya. Insisting that Tunisia would not take one side or another in Libya, Essebsi urged Hafter to focus on dialogue and reconciliation as the means to a workable settlement.
Libyan officials had said, however, that the real reason for his visit was talks in the Tunisian capital with the US ambassador to Libya, Peter Bodde.
On Saturday, Bodde had extensive talks in Tunis with Presidency Council head Faiez Serraj on the current political situation. They reportedly lasted five hours. In a bid to break the stalemate Washington is said to putting pressure on both men to continue with the deal they agreed in Paris in July .
On Saturday, Hafter was in Brazzaville for talks with Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso on the Libyan conflict. As head of the African Union’s High Level Committee on Libya, Nguesso had invited Hafter to AU summit on Libya nine days ago, along with Serraj, House of Representatives President Ageela Saleh and State Council head Abdulrahman Sewehli. Nguesso had hoped that with all the main political players present, he would be able to build on the Paris deal. However, Hafter did not accept the invitation. His Saturday visit to Brazzaville is seen as a diplomatic move to mollify Nguesso and the AU, having effectively dashed their aims.
As part of his travels, Hafter was said to be heading to Rome tomorrow for talks with the Italian government. He was invited by Italian interior minister Marco Minniti during talks between the two in Benghazi ten days ago. However, reports in Benghazi this eveningsay that he will return to Benghazi before going to Italy.
The Rome visit could see the construction of a new relationship between Italy and the east of Libya although it comes against the background of continued criticism by Hafter of Italian and western action on Libya and suspicions that Italy is wholly allied to the PC.
Last month, he threatened to attack Italian navy vessels in Libyan waters following Rome’s deal with Serraj allowing them in. Over the weekend, he was still dismissive of Western intentions in regard to Libya. Speaking to the press in Brazzaville after his meeting with Nguesso, he again accused Western counties of intervening in Libya “only for their own interest and not the interest of our country”.
