What did Hifter want to attack the port of Tripoli?

An Italian news website published a report highlighting the bombing carried out by the forces of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar yesterday, Tuesday, on the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the possible targets of this attack, which came at a critical time.

The "Formiki" report was based on the account of the Haftar Forces, which calls itself "the Libyan National Army," which a spokesman said had bombed the port of the capital and sank a Turkish ship loaded with weapons and ammunition in favor of the Libyan government of reconciliation.

However, the site said that witnesses confirmed that no ship had sunk in the port, despite the fall of one of the shells near a cargo ship loaded with methane, which was anchored at those moments in the port.

The report concluded that among the aims of Hifter’s forces to target a Turkish ship, is to practice the propaganda and morale of the forces that have been attacking since April 4, 2019, the Libyan capital to control them, but to no avail, despite the fact that Hifter’s media confirmed the possibility of controlling Tripoli within days Just.

International context
The writer called for an analysis of the port’s bombing also in an international political context, indicating its association with the decision taken by the European Union last Monday regarding the formation of a new European military mission to implement the UN embargo on the supply of weapons to Libya.

At a time when Turkey is assisting by sea the territory of Tripoli, especially Misurata (which is considered the political and military defense center against Haftar), the province of Cyrenaica (eastern Libya) controlled by Haftar receives military supplies by air and land from the UAE and Egypt.

The report stated that Haftar’s decision to bomb the port of Tripoli at this time stems from his feeling that he is safe from the monitoring operations that the new European military mission will undertake, given that the European warships that will sail in the eastern Mediterranean will be exposed to ships leaving from Turkey towards the Libyan western coasts, In this way, Haftar is using the new international framework issued by Europe to bomb the port of Tripoli, claiming the sinking of a Turkish ship carrying weapons to the Al-Wefaq government, to search for a new political space.

He added that these hypothetical considerations have a realistic background, explaining that the deployment of Europe to military ships and reconnaissance and droning aircraft off eastern Libya will certainly facilitate cutting military supplies destined for Tripoli, but at the same time it will be difficult to lead to stopping the generous military support reaching Haftar From the Emirates by air, and from Egypt by land, especially since the new European mission did not guarantee the monitoring and control of arms supply from these roads except by talking about satellite monitoring.

Not only that, but the attack carried out by Haftar on the port of Tripoli is - according to the site - a clear additional violation of the cease-fire that was supposed to meet the "5 + 5" Military Committee (consisting of ten officers representing the two parties to the conflict) under the auspices of the United Nations Sabah Today, Wednesday, in Geneva, to negotiate the transfer to a permanent cease-fire in Libya.

Bombing and meeting
"If this was not enough to indicate the aggressive retired brigade's intentions that do not see a way to solve the Libyan crisis other than war, it is also worth noting that at the moment when the port of Tripoli was bombed by Haftar missiles, the leader of the Barqa militia was meeting at the headquarters of the translation The American ambassador in Libya to discuss the possibility of turning the armistice into a permanent cease-fire.

He pointed out that Hifter had done something similar to that in the past days, when his forces bombed the Maitika Civil Airport in Tripoli - which is the only airport in the capital that provides air travel services to about three million people - in conjunction with the talks he was holding at the time with the Foreign Minister. Italian Luigi de Mayo, one of the most important promoters of the new European Union mission.

Targeting oil and utilities
The site pointed out that the Haftar attack on the port of Tripoli means targeting one of the most important facilities in the west of the country, which is an important part of it to meet the needs of Libyan citizens of fuel, as well as the continued closure of Haftar to the Libyan oil fields, as Libyan production decreased to about 130 thousand barrels per day after it exceeded 1.2 million barrels, before Haftar issued instructions to halt production, on the eve of the international conference on Libya that took place last month in Berlin.

According to the Libyan National Oil Corporation, the losses resulting from the stoppage of oil production exceeded $ 1.5 billion, and are now a source of concern for global markets.

The Italian site concluded by saying that Haftar is using the suspension of Libya's oil production and the attacks it is launching on the most important Libyan infrastructure, in order to isolate and strangle Tripoli.