Global News

Days before Libya‘s renegade General Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive on the country’s capital, Tripoli, Saudi Arabia offered tens of millions of dollars to help pay for the operation, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The offer came during a visit by Haftar to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in the run-up to his April 4 military campaign, the Journal said on Friday.

Citing senior advisers to the Saudi government, the Journal said the offer of funds – accepted by Haftar – was intended to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders, recruit and pay fighters, and other military purposes.

“We were quite generous,” one of the unnamed advisers told the Journal.

The latest conflict in the North African country pits Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) against forces allied to the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).

The GNA controls Tripoli, situated in northwestern Libya, while the LNA is allied to a parallel administration based in the east of the oil-rich country, which splintered into a patchwork of competing power bases following the overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The United Nations, which had hoped to organise a national conference this month bringing the rival eastern and western administrations together to organise an election, has called for a ceasefire. The United States, G7 bloc of wealthy nations and European Union have also urged the LNA to halt its offensive.

Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/saudis-gave-libya-haftar-millions-dollars-offensive-190412175708363.html?__twitter_impression=true