"The scheduled phone call, which took place April 15 but was not publicly acknowledged until April 19, followed a meeting between Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a conversation with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, who are both staunch supporters of Haftar.Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan later appeared to qualify the U.S. stance on Haftar, saying a "military solution is not what Libya needs. ... We need the U.S. supporting us diplomatically and politically," he said.After Trump's phone call with Haftar in April, the White House said in a statement that the president "recognized Field Marshal Haftar's significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources, and the two discussed a shared vision for Libya's transition to a stable, democratic political system. "Our forces that were occupied fighting ISIS, they all went to defend the capital" from Haftar's troops, which created an opening for the extremists, he added.U.N. Indonesia Fuels Worries With Plans to Cut Central Bank Auton... Non-state armed groups often overmatch formal security structures. Trump Claims China Had Thousands More Virus Deaths Than Repo... "So, what have been the consequences since Obama -- enthusiastically backed by Secretary of State Clinton -- helped overthrow the Gadhafi regime in Libya?Are we more certain now than we were then that terrorists who spring from -- or find sanctuary in -- Libya will not come to the United States and try to kill Americans?Will history record that Obama and Clinton were keen strategic thinkers when it came to advancing the interests of the United States in North Africa?Yet history should recall the Obama-Clinton policy toward Libya as one of the defining elements of Obama's administration.Eighteen months after Obama announced that the U.S. was intervening in Libya's civil war to enforce "the writ of the international community," radical Islamic terrorists attacked the poorly secured State Department compound in Benghazi and the CIA "annex" there.They killed four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.In the more than seven years that have passed since that attack, Libya has remained in chaos.A civil war continues there, and terrorists operate on Libyan territory.The State Department's latest annual report on terrorism in Libya, which was released this month and covers calendar year 2018, makes this clear. The country has since split between rival east- and west-based administrations, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments.The chaos has worsened in recent months as foreign backers increasingly intervene, despite pledges to the contrary at a high-profile peace summit in Berlin earlier this year.
ISTANBUL -- Turkey’s president has met with Tunisia ’s president in a surprise visit to Tunis to discuss the conflict in neighboring Libya. • Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, one of the sons of Muammar Gaddafi under the Popular Front for the Liberation of Libya “We should first hold parliamentary elections, then a referendum on the constitution and then presidential elections -- God willing -- by the end of the year,” he said in an interview with Al Hurra channel earlier this week.Qaddafi’s son hasn’t announced his intentions whether to stand for president but last month he sent an envoy to Russia, which has become a key power broker in Libya, to ask for political support. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings.A fighter loyal to Libya's U.N.-backed government fires an AK-47 during a clash with forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar on the outskirts of Tripoli on May 21.Fayez al-Sarraj, prime minister of Libya's Government of National Accord, in sunglasses, performs Eid al-Fitr prayers at the Martyrs Square in Tripoli on June 4, 2019.
"Terrorist groups continued to exploit the country's political instability and limited government presence, and some groups have integrated themselves within local communities -- particularly in the South," said the report. Townhall.com is the leading source for conservative news and political commentary and analysis.University Lesson: ‘If a Few of the Worst Republican Politicians Were Assassinated, it Wouldn’t Be the End of the World’Pelosi's Vain Reason for Violating the Very Coronavirus Rules She ChampionedArmed Neighborhood Watch Forms In Wake Of Kenosha Riots'Is this going to become a sub-genre of Twitter?' Pence Insists Trump Is Healthy as 2019 Hospital Stop Scrutin... "Libya's military forces are similarly weak and fragmented. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and John Barrasso, R-Wyo.Since Haftar's offensive on Tripoli began in early April, fighting has left 460 dead and more than 2,400 wounded, and forced 75,000 from their homes, according to the United Nations.Libya has been divided and lawless since NATO airstrikes helped oust dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power in 2011.Haftar is a former general in Gadhafi's army who later turned against him.
Satellite TV is a key news source and many outlets are based outside Libya. Fayez al-Sarraj, prime minister of Libya's Government of National Accord, in sunglasses, performs Eid al-Fitr prayers at the Martyrs Square in Tripoli on June 4, 2019. That will be hard.”Crucially, there was no immediate word from Hifter on the announcements, though he agreed to an Egyptian initiative in June that included a cease-fire.Fayez Sarraj, head of the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, said an effective cease-fire requires "the demilitarization of Sirte and Jurfa areas, and that police forces from the two sides agree on security arrangements there.”Aguila Saleh, speaker of the rival eastern-based House of Representatives, supported Sarraj’s proposal of demilitarization of Sirte — but he did not mention Jurfa. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the calls for a cease-fire and an end to hostilities in Libya and hopes they “will be respected immediately by armed forces from both sides,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.The U.N. chief urged the Joint Military Commission to quickly take up the cease-fire call and called on all parties “to engage constructively in an inclusive political process” based on the outcome of a conference of world leaders in Berlin in January, Dujarric said.