Trump aid uses napkin to propose splitting Libya into 3

An aide close to American President Donald Trump reportedly showed how Libya could be divided into three states by drawing a map on a napkin, according to the Guardian.

Sebastian Gorka, an American military and intelligence analyst and member of the president’s national security advisory staff, presented the partition plan to a senior European diplomat during a meeting.

The partition showed three states mapped out based on the old Ottoman Empire provinces, Cyrenaica in the east, Tripolitania in the north-west and Fezzan in the south-west.

The provinces were removed in 1911 when Italy gained control of the country.

Gorka’s suggestion was reportedly described as the “worst possible solution” by the European diplomat when he proposed the plan weeks before Trump’s inauguration.

The American official is reportedly competing for the White House post of presidential special envoy to Libya, a position that is still vacant.

The North African country is currently politically split between East and West with two rival governments operating their territory in a power struggle with their own parliament and army.

Read more: Where is Libya now after the Arab Spring? 

The Obama Administration supported the UN-backed Libyan government of national accord (GNA), led by Presidential Council President Fayez Al-Sarraj.

The east of the country is run by a Tobruk-based administration and controlled by Khalifa Haftar, an anti-Islamist military strongman who heads the Libyan National Army.

There have been concerns that the White House will reverse the Obama administration’s strong support for the GNA and instead support Haftar.

Trump has remained silent on Libya since taking the presidency but has made comments in the past saying he would have kept Muammar Gaddafi in power.