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News > Libya

Libya's Haftar Vows to Continue Offensive to Capture Tripoli

  • Libya's eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar attends General Security conference, in Benghazi, Libya, October 14, 2017.

    Libya's eastern-based commander Khalifa Haftar attends General Security conference, in Benghazi, Libya, October 14, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 26 May 2019
Opinion

“Of course, the political solution is still the goal. But to get back to politics, we must first finish with militias."

The leader of the Benghazi-based Libyan National Army, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar,  has ruled out a ceasefire in the northwestern part of the country, despite pressure from the United Nations.

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Speaking to the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, Haftar said his forces will continue their push to capture the Libyan capital city, Tripoli, amid ongoing warnings from countries like Italy, Qatar, and Turkey. 

Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) began an offensive in early April to take Tripoli from fighters loyal to Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA) which has the backing of the United Nations.

The LNA, which is allied to a parallel government in the east, has not been able to breach the southern defenses of Tripoli. The fighting has killed at least 510 people, forced 75,000 out of their homes and trapped thousands of migrants in detention centers.

“Of course, the political solution is still the goal. But to get back to politics, we must first finish with militias,” Haftar told the newspaper.

Haftar also said the head of U.N. mission to Libya, Ghassan Salame, was no longer impartial. “Partition of Libya is maybe what our adversaries want. This is maybe what Ghassan Salame also wants.”

The flare-up in the conflict in Libya - which has been gripped by anarchy since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011 - began in early April, when the LNA advanced on the capital.

Even though France and other Western countries officially back the Libyan government, some have supported Haftar as they see him as a bulwark against Islamist militias in the country.

Macron had asked Haftar in a meeting held in Paris this week to make a public step toward a ceasefire, without much luck, a French official told Reuters.

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