clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Following defeat in Gharyan: Tahnoun bin Zayed funds plan to prevent splits from Haftar army

July 24, 2019 at 4:50 am

Tahnoun bin Zayed [Twitter]

Egyptian and Libyan sources unveiled, Tuesday, that the UAE national security advisor and brother of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Tahnoun bin Zayed, is overseeing a large-scale operation to bribe militias loyal to Tobruk parliament against the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, for fear of possible splits in the ranks of General Khalifa Haftar forces, west of Libya.

The sources pointed out that there are fears in Cairo and Abu Dhabi of the withdrawal of areas in the west of Libya, such as Tarhunah and Bani Walid, from backing Haftar in his latest operation, after paving the way for his forces to reach the outskirts of the capital. This came after the great loss suffered by the Haftar forces in the city of Gharyan (the operations centre of the offence on Tripoli), according to The New Arab.

READ: UAE insists it will not leave Yemen, despite troop reduction 

Recent reports of the committee on Libya’s file in Egypt (led by the General Intelligence Service, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Secretariat of the Armed Forces) indicated that Haftar’s setback in Gharyan was a surprise and completely unpredictable and had negative effects on his allies at home and abroad , especially as it came at a time when Egypt and the UAE reached agreements with international parties to support the retired General’s movements, and grant him an opportunity to impose control over the entire Libyan territory. However, Haftar’s defeat in Gharyan has caused an international crisis for a country like France, so “Paris has taken steps to reduce its support for him,” the sources said.