CNN: UAE, Saudi Arabia funded Haftar’s military operation on Tripoli with $200m

BY Libyan Express May 06, 2019 - 18:15 Updated: May 31, 2020 - 13:46

A grab from a video published on Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army War Information Division’s Facebook page on 16 April, 2019, shows fighters riding atop an armoured vehicle (AFP)

CNN reported what it described as “a regional source” as saying that the governments of the UAE and Saudi Arabia have pledged some $200 million to Khalifa Haftar’s military campaign, some of which has been used to buy weapons.

CNN added on Saturday that in recent years, the UAE has provided Haftar’s forces with aircraft and nearly 100 armored personnel carriers, citing a United Nations Experts report.

The same report said the UAE most likely helped Haftar develop an airbase at Khadim, outside Marij town, where Haftar is based.

A UAE diplomatic source told CNN that the contest in Libya is a battle over “ending Qatari and Turkish regional influence and their sponsorship of Muslim Brotherhood-led militias in the region.

Khalifa Haftar said on Sunday on an audiotape released by the spokesman of his forces that Ramadan had not been a reason to halt previous battles when he seized the eastern cities of Benghazi and Derna.

“Officers and soldiers in our armed forces and the auxiliary forces, I salute you in this glorious days and urge you with your strength and determination to teach the enemy a greater and bigger lesson than the previous ones, as we’ve always known you to do, till we uproot it from our beloved land,” Haftar said.

He urged his forces to fight as Ramadan is a month of jihad, disregarding the call of the UNSMIL for a humanitarian truce for an extendable one week.

It is worth mentioning that many officials at the Government of National Accord (GNA) have said over the last month that there can be no ceasefire until Haftar’s forces retreat to their previous positions as before April 03, 2019.

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