Aug. 28 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United States has called on Libya’s warring authorities to engage in “constructive dialogue” to address the recent escalation of tensions, as a senior US military official met with Khalifa Haftar, who supports the eastern authorities in the country who are at odds with the internationally recognised government.
The head of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), Michael Langley, and the US chargé d’affaires in Libya, Jeremy Berndt, met on Tuesday with Haftar in the town of Benghazi (east) to stress “the importance of preserving the stability of Libya” and to advocate “a de-escalation”.
“The United States calls on all Libyan stakeholders to engage in constructive dialogue, with the support of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the international community,” the US Embassy said in a message posted on its social media account X after the meeting.
Langley and Berndt conveyed to Haftar “the United States’ commitment to strengthening the partnership with Libyans in all parts of the country, as well as American support for Libyan efforts to protect Libya’s sovereignty amid the security challenges in the region.”
Troops led by Haftar announced in early August a mobilization towards the southwest of the country, amid reports of the presence of mercenaries from the Africa Corps – formerly known as the Wagner Group – which supports the forces of the authorities based in eastern Libya.
Tensions have also been heightened by the appointment of Abdelfatá Abdelgafar as the new governor of the Central Bank of Libya, one of the few ties between the two authorities and a key cog in financial operations related to oil exports.
Abdelgafar, who was until now deputy governor of the Central Bank, assured on Tuesday at his first press conference in Tripoli that the Central Bank will continue working to protect the interests of the population, while guaranteeing international financial organizations that the bank will continue its operations.
“We work in line with transparency standards and our goal is to develop and modernize the Central Bank of Libya and its working mechanisms,” he said, before criticizing the “inflexibility of the previous administration in exercising its functions” and assuring that the bank will ensure the payment of salaries to the population.
He thus asked his predecessor, Sadiq al Kabir – who was dismissed after the kidnapping and subsequent release of the bank’s IT chief – to “hand over the secret numbers (referring to the passwords) so that the salaries of Libyans can be paid and assets and investments abroad can be protected.”
This new crisis is yet another example of the long administrative conflict that has shaken the country for more than a decade following the arrest and execution in 2011 of the then leader of the African country, Muammar Gaddafi, in the context of a civil war unleashed by the ‘Arab Spring’.
The country has been rocked for years by a dispute between Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibé and eastern authorities whose strongmen are House Speaker Aguila Saleh and Haftar, with numerous armed groups in between seeking to consolidate their power in different parts of the country, including the capital, Tripoli.
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