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Thread: Libya News and Interests

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    Power outages short-circuit Libya's economy
    https://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/libya.html
    The surge in the power generator market in Tripoli goes against the current, as the inconstant electricity supply is otherwise sapping the dynamism of Libya's small businesses.

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    Russia wary to take sides in Libya as Hifter offers lucrative deals
    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...#ixzz5OAV5rpKW


    The spokesman of Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who heads the Libyan National Army (LNA), called on Moscow Aug. 8 to intervene into Libya "to get rid of foreign players in the country.” Ahmed al-Mismari told Russia’s state-owned media Sputnik that the situation in Libya requires a Russian presence similar to that in Syria, and urged President Vladimir Putin’s personal intervention “to directly eliminate foreign players in Libya such as Qatar, Turkey and Italy.”

    He added, "We are very confident that Russia is a superpower and its words will be heard if it holds talks with Italy, Turkey and Qatar or other countries such as Sudan, regarding the smuggling of terrorists into Libya."

    Mismari also argued that Russia’s intervention in Syria was successful, noting that its role in eliminating foreign players there was "prominent."

    “What’s happening in Syria is happening in Libya. The Libyan people are looking for a strong ally like Russia," he concluded.

    The words of one of the top man in the LNA hierarchy demonstrate that Russia’s influence in the Middle East continues to increase. In late July, members of the Ansar Allah movement from Yemen also asked Moscow to intervene to stop the war in their country. Moreover, every side of both Libyan and Yemeni conflicts wants Russia to take a more active stance in the peace settlement process.

    At the same time such statements made by the LNA show that the positions of Hifter and his allies have substantially diminished and their situation has become worse. The army’s leaders are trying once again to seek Russia’s attention and persuade it to become their new patron, particularly after Hifter’s closest partners — the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France and Egypt — refused to support him and the Tobruk government in their decision to place the oil export ports in the so-called Libyan Crescent under the administration of the National Oil Corporation in Benghazi, a company controlled by groups close to Hifter. As a result, on July 10 the Tobruk government was compelled to return these ports under the authority of the legitimate National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli. Basically, such hasty, irrational decisions were made by Hifter too as a reaction to his own failures.

    For instance, the operation conducted by a small independent unit made up of former Petroleum Facilities Guard militants, led by Ibrahim Jadran, as a result of which the LNA had lost control over strategically important Sidr and Ras Lanuf ports for several days in mid-June substantially damaged the reputation of Hifter’s forces. This was the second time that the LNA failed to provide security for these crucial energy industry objects and lost control over the “oil crescent” ports. In March 2017, the Benghazi Defense Brigades managed to take over Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad ports. Naturally, all this raises uncertainty among foreign players about the LNA’s ability not only to provide constant oil supplies, but also to keep order on the territories they control.

    Moreover, the politicians in Tobruk are concerned that the presidential and parliamentary elections planned for late 2018 may fail or be rejected due to the positions of numerous leading nations, particularly Italy, which suggest conducting elections only after national peace is reached. Many Libyan factions, which have refused to acknowledge the Paris agreements between Tripoli and Tobruk on national elections, also support this opinion. This may deal a serious blow to positions of the Tobruk government as a whole and Hifter in particular, as they risk losing a chance to restore their legitimacy. In this context, Hifter will most likely continue to seek Moscow’s support to bring the Paris agreements into life. This is why Mismari mentioned Italy among the countries from which Russia should protect Libya.

    At the same time, it is not the first time that Hifter makes populist statements about Russian support. A source in Russian diplomatic circles told Al-Monitor that Moscow repeatedly had to explain its position to the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli about certain statements the LNA representatives had made in regard to receiving aid from Russia or Russia’s willingness to provide military support to them, which had nothing to do with the real state of affairs and had only been used for Hifter’s own political objectives. Nevertheless, those words and actions have partly reached their goal, as on a few occasions they have been able to hinder cooperation between Moscow and Tripoli.

    Despite the rumors spread by the Tobruk government, Moscow essentially plays a much less substantial role in supporting Hifter than, for instance, France, Egypt or the UAE. Unlike Russia, these countries provide the leaders in Tobruk with direct military aid. In particular, Egyptian and French special forces have repeatedly taken part in the LNA’s assaults against Libyan militant groups affiliated with al-Qaeda; while the UAE and Egypt have been providing the LNA with aviation backups and weapons supplies.

    Russia’s own record of direct military aid for the LNA is murky: injured LNA soldiers received medical treatment in Russian hospitals and the Russian government authorized Belarus to supply the UAE with Russian-made weapons such as Mi-24/35 helicopters that were later handed over to the LNA. Besides, some Russian private military contractors such as the RSB Group have worked in LNA-controlled areas; however, their activities reportedly included only demining of civilian industry objects in Benghazi — in particular, a factory that had belonged to the Libyan Cement Company.

    At the same time, Russia has also been developing a dynamic relationship with the GNA in Tripoli. The parties have been establishing cooperation in the security field, while bilateral interagency contacts between them are actually more intensive than those between Moscow and Tobruk.

    Moscow is also rather wary of Hifter. First, the Russians never forgot that the self-proclaimed field marshal lived in the United States for about 20 years after he had left former President Moammar Gadhafi in the early 1990s. This fact may refer to his possible ties to the CIA. Moreover, the Russians are concerned with the UAE’s extensive influence on the Tobruk government, supposing that Abu Dhabi strives to use Moscow as a tool to facilitate the maintenance of its own creation. Also, Russia cannot ignore Hifter’s overtures to local Salafists who make up a major part of his forces. The Salafi religious institutions held in authority by the Tobruk government openly make direct proclamations where they push other Islamic groups of Libya (i.e., Ibadhi Berbers) out of the country’s Muslim community.

    At the same time, appeals by Hifter’s supporters to Moscow should not be seen merely as populism or propaganda as they are aimed at a certain part of the Russian government. For instance, although the Kremlin includes a prominent faction requesting to avoid providing Hifter with excessive support and expecting great benefits from the cooperation with Tripoli, mostly in economic aspects, there are groups in the government, particularly in power and military industry structures, that lobby for Hifter.

    Their interest in supporting the LNA is reinforced by Hifter’s proclaimed willingness to buy Russian weapons in bulk if it is legalized and freed from the sanctions, as well as by his capability to provide in Eastern Libyan ports such as Tobruk and Benghazi, which Russian military leaders have already visited, for military bases. Moreover, Hifter’s image as a resilient fighter against political Islam is quite appealing for many Russian politicians, so that they are ready to overlook his relationships with the Salafists.

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    Tripoli, among other cities in Libya, saw angry protesters taking to the streets on Friday in protest of the "awful living conditions" as well as the continuous power cuts and the hike in bread prices, let alone the shortage of cash in banks.

    In Tripoli, protesters went to the Martyrs Square speaking out anger over the long hours of power outages and high bread prices, blaming the Presidential Council and other political bodies for the miserable living conditions.

    They also demanded the official political figures to step down and called for speeding up holding elections.
    https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/li...ing-conditions

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    Libyan National Gathering, which has figures loyal to the regime of Moamar Gaddafi, held Wednesday its second conference in Tripoli and announced its intention to nominate candidates for the upcoming Libyan elections and any other political privileges “to salvage the country.”

    Under the logo “One Country Accommodates All,” the gathering called on all Libyan stakeholders to activate a new roadmap that complements the action plan of the UNSMIL so communication channels can be found to engage all Libyan social components and parties in a comprehensive consensus.

    “We call for a national conference that includes all Libyans to have reconciliation for the best interest of the country and to unite institutions such as security and military, central bank and others, which would end division among the fellow citizens.”
    https://www.libyaobserver.ly/news/ga...ming-elections

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    Quote Originally Posted by noise View Post
    To visit Libya in recent months is to encounter a country holding its breath, caught in the throes of abeyance and a deep foreboding.
    It is a lawless place, riddled with criminality and flare-ups of fierce fighting in the south and east.
    Oil revenues have fallen due to recent factional clashes and elite plunder has everyday Libyans struggling for subsistence amid deep economic crisis.
    Overlaying all of this is a lingering political stalemate. Formal authority is split between a feeble, internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in the capital of Tripoli and eastern institutions dominated by Field Marshal Khalifa Hiftar, who once served under the former Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi but later had a falling-out. But much of the country’s west and south escapes the control of these rival authorities.
    Clearly we need to be running Libya via endless military occupation too.

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    Detail of the exterior of the main synagogue in Tripoli, Libya

    the Jews of Libya settled in the Tripoli and Benghazi regions following the expulsion from Spain at the end of the 15th century and the start of the 16th. They came from Spain, Portugal and Italy, and lived without much fanfare in Libya until the beginning of the 20th century.
    In 1904, according to “The Jews of Libya: Coexistence, Persecution, Resettlement” by Ben-Gurion University’s Maurice Roumani, Libya’s Jewish community numbered 18,000.
    The great majority, 12,000, lived in and around Tripoli, the country’s largest city (a third of whose population was Jewish), and 2,000 lived in Benghazi, the second largest. By 1939, Libya’s Jewish population stood at 30,000, increasing to 32,670 by 1948.

    The Jews lived mostly in their own neighborhoods, particularly in Tripoli, where they resided in the Jewish Quarter (Haret el-Yahud). They were for the most part from the lower middle class, and traditional in their behavior, not embracing the changes wrought by the start of modernization in Libya at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, a minority of Libyan Jews were more affluent and were influenced by European culture. Tension developed between the two groups and was worsened by the Italian occupation, which extended between 1911 and 1943.

    At the same time, the 32-year occupation generated many positive changes for the Jewish community, including improved civil rights, a better economy and a higher rate of education. The Jews entered the colonial bureaucracy, became active in trade with Europe, and took up the liberal professions. The sociologist Shlomo Swirski, in his book “Seeds of Inequality” (Hebrew, 1995), notes that this process often included a narrowing of class differences and the political and cultural identification of some of the Jewish elite with the Europeans. This was the case with the elite in Tripoli, who adopted Italian culture.

    The colonial authorities in Libya had the Jews learning Italian in the schools, expanded trade between Libya and Italy, introduced modern economic methods, and cultivated Western culture and its values. Roumani notes that during the Italian occupation, 43.8 percent of the Jewish men and 29.7 percent of the Jewish women in Tripoli spoke Italian. The phenomenon was even more widespread in Benghazi, where Italian was spoken by 67.1 percent of Jewish men and 40.8 percent of the Jewish women. The Italians also invested in improving life in the Haret el-Yahud, many of whose residents were poor and where there was a high birth rate and low education level.

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...nity-1.6386744 (more @ link)

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    Italy's Diciotti coast guard vessel carrying 67 asylum seekers arrives in Trapani port on July 12, 2018. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini demanded Aug. 19, 2018, that other European countries take in the 177 migrants rescued on Aug. 16 by the Diciotti.
    ALESSANDRO FUCARINI—AFP—Getty Images
    http://time.com/5371306/italy-malta-...migrants-ship/

    Italy’s firebrand interior minister threatened Sunday to return to Libya 177 migrants who have been aboard an Italian coast guard ship for days following another standoff with Malta.

    Interior Minister Matteo Salvini demanded that other European countries take in the migrants after his Maltese counterpart, Michael Farrugia, insisted that the “only solution” is for the Diciotti ship to dock at the Italian island of Lampedusa.

    The Diciotti, working under the EU’s Frontex Mediterranean rescue operation, has been off Lampedusa after rescuing the migrants Aug. 16. Italy asked Malta to take them in, but Malta refused, saying the migrant boat wasn’t in distress and that the migrants declined Maltese assistance, preferring to continue toward Italy.

    In a tweet Sunday, Farrugia accused Italy of rescuing the migrants in Maltese waters “purely to prevent them from entering Italian waters.”

    If carried out, Salvini’s threat could pose legal issues for Italy, since the Italian government has already been faulted by the European Court of Human Rights for using its own ships to return migrants to Libya. Italy has gotten around that 2012 court ruling by helping Libya’s coast guard better patrol its own coasts to bring migrants back.

    Malta has defended its actions as entirely consistent with international law.

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    Kissinger: “demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.”
    ________

    Cold War 2.0 Russia hysteria is turning people’s brains into guacamole.
    We’ve got to find a way to snap out of the propaganda trance
    ________

    Buddha: "trust the person who seeks truth and mistrust the person who claims he has found it "
    1.2.3.4.5.6.7. All Good Children Go to Heaven

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    Kissinger: “demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.”
    ________

    Cold War 2.0 Russia hysteria is turning people’s brains into guacamole.
    We’ve got to find a way to snap out of the propaganda trance
    ________

    Buddha: "trust the person who seeks truth and mistrust the person who claims he has found it "
    1.2.3.4.5.6.7. All Good Children Go to Heaven

  11. #356 | Top
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    Libya: Flights diverted after rocket attack on Tripoli airport

    Attack on airport comes less than a week after the UN brokered a truce between rival armed groups in Libyan capital.


    Rockets were fired at Libya’s only functioning airport in Tripoli late on Tuesday, forcing flights to be diverted less than a week after the UN brokered a fragile truce between rival militias in the capital.

    The airport had only reopened on Friday, following a week-long closure due to deadly fighting between militias in and around Tripoli.

    A new group known as the Tripoli Youth Movement claimed responsability for the attack. In a Facebook video posted on Sunday, the group called on maintenance workers to evacuate the airport.

    They also demanded that armed militias operating under the internationally-recognised
    Government National Accord (GNA)
    give back control of the airport to civilian authorities.

    Reporting from Tripoli, Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed said authorities have asked that planes stationed at Mitiga airport be flown out to other facilities.

    "Authorities are worried that the planes might get damaged by some of the stray rockets which may land in the area," Abdelwahed said.

    There were no reports of casualties or material damage at Mitiga airport as a result of Tuesday’s attack but Libyan television channels reported that several people were wounded by rockets elsewhere, one of which landed in the Mediterranean.

    A flight bound for Tripoli from neighbouring Egypt was rerouted to the city of Misrata, located 190 kilometres east of the capital, and airport officials said all flights would be rerouted.
    READ MORE
    Q&A: What's next for Libya?

    Mitiga, a former military airport in the east of the city, was first opened to civil air traffic after the destruction of Tripoli's international airport in the capital's south during unrest in 2014.

    (Tripoli Airport battle of 2014 is what allowed the now Gen. Hiftar government move successfully to Tobruk) -
    (it was the beginning of the current multi-government controlled Libya)
    <- my notes


    photos from video released by #Tripoli Youth Movement showing the rocket fire (appears to be BM-21 Grad)
    targeting #Mitiga Airport

  12. The Following User Says Thank You to anatta For This Post:

    cancel2 2022 (09-14-2018)

  13. #357 | Top
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    Oded Berkowitz
    ‏ @Oded121351
    13h13 hours ago

    #Libya- report on the September 10 attack on #NOC HQ in Tripoli from #ISIS weekly al-Naba newsletter (#147).
    Interestingly refers to location as "Wilaya Libya-Tarablus", whereas in the past it was always Wilaya Tarablus/Barqa/Fezzan with no reference to Libya.

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    A Norwegian state report says the officials “had very limited knowledge” of what was going on in Libya, but promptly decided to join the US-led intervention, turning the once thriving North African nation into a terrorist hotbed.

    Norway rushed to help its NATO allies to pound Libya with airstrikes in 2011, without understanding what was actually happening on the ground or the dire consequences the intervention might lead to, a new state report has concluded. The commission, chaired by former Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, found that politicians in Oslo “had very limited knowledge of Libya” when they dragged the nation into the US-led bombing campaign against the Libyan government.

    the attack, dubbed ‘Operation Odyssey Dawn,’ was aimed at aiding the armed anti-government rebels in ousting longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi and eventually led to his brutal murder. After Gaddafi’s assassination, Libya quickly descended into civil war and became a hotbed for terrorism. The country is still divided between warring factions.

    Norway had provided six F-16 fighter jets during the air campaign. According to the report, these jets flew 596 strike missions between March and July 2011, dropping 588 bombs on Libyan targets. This amounts to about 10 percent of all coalition strikes against Libya that year.

    The report’s revelations led some politicians to re-examine the country’s involvement in the Libyan campaign.

    “When you look at what happened next, with Libya becoming a hotspot of terrorism, this is not a decision to be proud of,” former Center Party leader Liv Signe Navarsete said.

    Socialist Left Party leader Audun Lysbakken told local media that “Norway should not have participated in the Libya war,” given what the nation knows today.

    The new information “is quite painful” for the political class, Morten Boas, researcher at the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute, told RT. “The authors of the report are expressing regret. They say that they didn’t really understand the [possible] outcome.”

    In 2011, many in Norway thought that the country was getting into the fight against Gaddafi “mainly for humanitarian reasons,” Boas said. “The other key players saw beyond the humanitarian reasoning and were basically interested in regime change, getting rid of Gaddafi.I don’t think that necessarily all Norwegian politicians really understood this.”
    https://www.rt.com/news/438683-norway-libya-war-report/

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    Have you seen 13 Hours? Incredibly well done, despite being directed by Michael Bay.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Hou...zi?wprov=sfla1

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    It is not all doom and gloom on Libya, here is a positive story.

    U.S. Guidry group to build billion-dollar Susah deep sea port

    https://www.libyaherald.com/2018/08/...deep-sea-port/

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