The Wall Street Journal: Saudi Arabia finances a Hafar attack on Tripoli

Riyadh has pledged to pay millions of dollars to retired Brigadier General Khalifa Hafer to finance his military operation to restore the capital Tripoli, the Wall Street Journal quoted Saudi officials as saying.

The newspaper added - according to the same sources - that Hafter before the Saudi offer, which received during one of his visits to the Kingdom.

According to Saudi officials, Haftar visited Saudi Arabia on March 27, where he met with the king of Saudi Arabia and his crown prince, as well as the interior minister and intelligence chief.

A UN committee monitoring the arms embargo in Libya said the commander of eastern Libya (Haftar) had received air support from the UAE and Egypt.

"The Wall Street Journal agrees with an article by Ali Ben Saad on the French Monde Afrique website that Saudi Arabia and the UAE are seeking to restore authoritarianism in the Arab world and that they intend to extend their influence in Libya, just as in Egypt.

Ben Saad, a professor at the Institute of Geopolitical Studies in Paris, noted that King Salman bin Abdul Aziz received his Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on March 27 last year in Hifter, Riyadh, a week before the last attack on Tripoli.

According to the writer, this military escalation in Libya aims to block a possible consensus, and highlights the "subversive" role of the bilateral Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which paves the way to strengthen authoritarianism and destabilize the Arab world.