Wolfram Lacher, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said – quoting sources – that the commander of the Dignity Forces, Khalifa Haftar, informed Western diplomats that he intends to make another attempt to seize Tripoli.
Wolfram Lacher based his article on Haftar’s ongoing acquisitions of military equipment, such as the shipment of Chinese combat drones he tried to deliver to Benghazi before it was intercepted by Italian authorities.
Wolfram added that Haftar’s clash with those close to him is that he seeks to turn Western factions against each other and buy the support of what he called chosen militia leaders, a task made easier by the money now at his disposal, which threatens the stability of the balance of power.
Wolfram sees the Turkish military presence in western Libya as a huge obstacle to such ambitions, given that Haftar’s seizure of power would immediately make them unnecessary.
Wolfram added that the conflicts in Libya are strengthening what he called “clan influence,” and that collusion between former enemies in Tripoli has opened an unprecedented door for money to reach the Haftar family based in the east, threatening the fragile balance.
Haftar’s fuel smuggling market
The article pointed out that Haftar’s forces are one of the main players in the fuel smuggling market since they took control of a large part of Libya’s land and sea borders.
The article said that the leadership is dominant after Haftar’s candidate, Ben Gaddara, took over as head of the National Oil Corporation in mid-2022 and later appointed a loyalist of Haftar’s Saddam as head of its subsidiary, Brega, which handles fuel sales.
The author of the article based his talk about smuggling operations on the report of the Committee of Experts that monitors violations, saying: Oil tankers sometimes loaded fuel at the port of Benghazi to smuggle it abroad. Trucks loaded fuel at warehouses controlled by Haftar’s forces and passed through checkpoints run by these forces on their way to Sudan and Chad, arriving in the Central African Republic.
According to the sources, these operations, including the smuggling networks, are all under the supervision of Saddam Haftar, his brother Khaled, and other members close to the family, which means that the profits are reinvested in military units in the region.
According to reports, the annual fuel import bill from 2021 to 2023 doubled to $8.5 billion, equivalent to a third of the oil revenues transferred to the Central Bank of Libya that year.
The researcher stated that the struggle for power in Tripoli has reshaped political alliances in Libya and helped the Haftar family obtain unprecedented funds to distribute patronage, adding that the family exploited the dispute between the governor of the Central Bank and Dabaiba, and as a result of this conflict, the bleeding of state funds is exacerbated, while Haftar’s sons are working to consolidate their power.
According to the article, Haftar receives hundreds of millions of dinars from the Tripoli government every month, even as they maintain their rival government, and their control over commercial banks and the central bank in Benghazi has enabled them to eliminate old debts and start spending on credit again.
Source: Article by Wolfram Lacher, researcher at the German Institute for Security Affairs
2024-08-20 18:12:32