There is still talk about the total number of victories achieved by the Libyan government of reconciliation during the "Storm of Peace" process launched on March 25, 2020 in Mashhad, when news began coming up one by one about the efforts of the Russian support for the retired Libyan brigade, Khalifa Hifter. Indeed, Mashhad The land of the strategic al-Wattia air base (140 km southwest of Tripoli) was seized on May 18th, as the last military stronghold of Haftar's forces at the time, which almost coincided with what was revealed by satellites about the arrival of Russian fighter planes in eastern Libya, and 14 of the " MiG-29s "and" Su-24s ", the Russian forces had repainted them in Syrian territory in order to hide their Russian marks, and soon these planes moved periodically and regularly from the Syrian territories controlled by Moscow to their counterparts in Libya, in a clear approach to strengthening The military capabilities of weapons and forces for Haftar and fortify its eastern stronghold both militarily and economically, as a week ago Russian military contractors enabled Haftar to control the largest oil field in Libya.
NEWS: Russia deploys military fighter aircraft to Libya
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“For too long, Russia has denied the full extent of its involvement in the ongoing Libyan conflict. Well, there is no denying it now.” - Gen. Townsend
Release: https://t.co/HpLdwUJxcr
Photos: https://t.co/raTal1LKPa pic.twitter.com/dVtsWKPYZ5
- US AFRICOM (@USAfricaCommand) May 26, 2020
For more large-scale military support, Moscow has also been working with the Syrian regime in the past few to transfer Syrian fighters to Libya in order to apply their combat skills acquired in the Syrian war in Libya. The youth of Quneitra, Deir Ezzor and others responded to the material temptations it provided They have village chiefs in southern and eastern Syria driven by orders of military intelligence officers of the Syrian regime. For the participation in the Libyan civil war, the recruiter will be exempted from compulsory service in the Syrian regime’s army, and a salary of $ 1,000 per month will be granted, and he will receive whoever is killed or injured in an amount ranging from what Between 25,000 to 50,000 dollars, and the pace of Syrian recruitment that the Russians began in that year 2019 accelerated last May, when retired Major General Haftar was losing one area after another from his areas of control in the east and west of Libya. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Russia recruited more than 900 Syrians to fight in Libya in the mentioned month, after they were well trained at a military base in Homs, which are appeals to what the Kremlin started when it embarked at the beginning of its military intervention in Libya On the introduction of paid mercenaries into the ranks of the Haftar Army, from the Wagner Military Group and the Sudanese paramilitary forces (the Janjaweed).
With previous efforts, the Russians seemed not satisfied with military assistance to serve their agendas in Libya, as Wagner Company has been providing media, political and financial services in Libya, as if it entered into a partnership with the "Jamahiriya" television channel that belongs to the Gaddafi regime, and holds 50% of the capital of the channel that She now broadcasts regularly, then moved gradually to promote Haftar through her screen, as well as the Russian company, Libya Hadath, owned by Saddam, Haftar's son, who entered the circle of concern for the Russian company, and published the "Voice of the People" newspaper, which is distributed for free.
Now, as the military gains of Al-Wefaq forces around the strategic coastal city of Sirte and the Al-Jafra air base in which the forces of the Russian Wagner Company are stationed, the battlefield in Libya is further complicated by Russian moves to prolong the conflict, taking advantage of Hifter’s weakness and the arrival of American influence in Libya. To its lowest levels, Moscow is just around the corner from obtaining the opportunity that gives it more influence in Libya, and allows the Russian president to achieve his goal of participating in the Libyan battle, which is Moscow extending its influence over the Mediterranean, and influencing the oil industry in a way Greater, securing profitable infrastructure contracts in Libya, and getting closer to Russia becoming a strategic player in the countries that are considered “Europe's soft flanks” to the waves of refugees, as it can through Libya press the European Union to end the comprehensive set of economic sanctions imposed by The European Union has to intervene militarily in Ukraine in 2014.
In recent years, Russia has sought to expand its military influence throughout Africa. Not only has it increased arms sales and security agreements, it has deployed mercenaries and political advisors in many unstable African countries, including Libya, which saw access to its strategic ports as opportunities for further expansion. On the brown continent, and in its quest to establish a foothold in Libya, after four years of diplomatic support, Russia turned to military support for Haftar, and dispatched aircraft, artillery, and forces to influence the direction of the battle on Libyan soil.
In September 2019 in particular, the Kremlin threw its hat in the Libyan civil war, so it deployed mercenaries on the front lines in the Battle of Tripoli to support Haftar, as well as providing Haftor millions of dollars in the newly minted Libyan currency, which turned the country into two financial regions, and the Russians continued to dominate logistical services over Haftar's forces, It was even provided with complementary parts of weapons, providing his forces with military training.
Despite the foregoing, the Kremlin was convinced from the start that Haftar, who was described by Russian agents as "difficult to march" towards his Russian advisers, would not be loyal to Russian interests in the event of his military victory, and the Kremlin responded to a recommendation about the importance of securing their bets on Haftar, and summoning multiple parties to the conflict Through an alliance, for example, with Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the eldest son of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi who is now planning to return to the Libyan political scene, as Moscow is now working to exploit the conflict in Libya by trying to revive parts of the Gaddafi regime to add an important player to the mix, and behind the scenes surrounds Sequentially Haftar is accompanied by many of the old Moscow security partners during the Qaddafi era, and encourages loyalists of the old regime to return from exile, and as Anna Porchskaya of the Washington Institute says: “If they are trying to support Ibn Qaddafi, this increases the strength of the argument that they are trying to put Themselves as a rule rather than supporting one individual group. "
However, Moscow's insistence on supporting Haftar is now a more creeping shift from a proxy war to open support, after the Accord Forces achieved a number of victories, the most important since Haftar launched its battle against the capital, Tripoli, in April 2019, as the restoration of six cities, most notably Sabratha and Sorman, as well as two regions Two strategies gave it full control of the western coast to the Tunisian border, and the restoration of the land of the strategic air base, as the country that is a valuable source of oil in the long term is threatened to get out of the hands of Russia and its allies, but is also threatened with a loss of power balance with the Turkish influence that Moscow has prepared as an option The least loss for her, as Moscow's reaction to the large increase in the number of militia fighters supported by Turkey is to push more militia loyal to it in Libya, as we mentioned before.
On September 11, 2012, the American consulate in Benghazi was stormed by armed elements linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in this attack, the American ambassador Christopher Stevens and 3 other Americans were killed, which made the incident a great blow to the administration of Barack Obama at the time, as well as a psychological scar in American policy towards Libya has prompted Washington to reduce its presence and activities in Libya, and to limit itself to a few activities aimed at combating groups such as the Islamic State “ISIS” and Al Qaeda.
Washington remained committed to the "wait and see" strategy in Libya until US President Donald Trump came to power in 2016, when Emirati Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed hurried toward supporting his ally in the Libyan war Haftar between members of the Trump foreign affairs team, this crowd based that Libya Which has plunged into a quagmire of anarchy since the NATO campaign helped to topple Qaddafi in 2011 is controlled by a hopeless government that is Islamists in the government of reconciliation supported by the United Nations and officially recognized by Washington, in exchange for this the beauty of Haftar who pledged since 2014 to eliminate political Islam in Libya, Haftar's allies, Emiratis and Egyptians, have found someone he listens to and even sympathizes with in the Trump administration. He was then-national security adviser John Bolton, who was leading an extreme right-wing research center known for his broader attacks on political Islam, and it was recently revealed that it was Bolton who gave Haftar permission to launch An attack on the capital, Tripoli, in the spring of 2019, when he showed in a phone call at the time that he had explicitly agreed to launch the attack, ahead of a planned peace conference supported by Washington among the warring factions in Libya, but what is more surprising is that My ally Haftar al-Quwain Ibn Zayd and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged Trump to pay tribute to Haftar's "important role in combating terrorism and securing Libya's oil resources," he said during a phone call to Haftar on April 19, 2019.
After Trump's call, the White House attempted to defuse the controversy by saying that the call was only about counterterrorism efforts in Libya, but that Washington continued its dual-engagement policy in Libya, only to exacerbate the consensus government’s sense of abandonment and let down by the US administration, and that government had realized that under Trump's presidency, the American foreign policy is determined from the think tanks and pressure groups in Washington and not from the State Department, which prompted Al-Wefaq to consolidate its relations with Ankara, and signed a year-long contract worth more than a million dollars only two weeks after Hifter and Trump's call, and yet the Accord continued warning Washington from Hifter, and she succeeded in a skilful pressure move to persuade Washington that Russia wants to form an authoritarian government in Libya that ignores the UN plans, which led to the representatives of the White House, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Pentagon, on November 25 last message, to Hifter stressing that The United States fully supports Libya's sovereignty, and expresses grave concern "about Russia's exploitation of the conflict at the expense of the Libyan people."
In addition to the chaos caused by the fighting of several parties in Libya to achieve special interests, the US policy of inaction in Libya prompted Russian President Vladimir Putin to resume his strategy of bridging the gaps in the leadership left behind by Washington, in the absence of decisive US action and the Trump administration's failure to respond to the American voices demanding That their countries maintain a strong footprint in the region, Moscow seized the opportunity to include itself as a regional power broker in Libya to replace American influence in North Africa, says Eugene Romer, director of the Russia-Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment: “In the end, any future settlement in that The country (Libya) could serve as a starting point for building Russian influence in North Africa and the Mediterranean, and positioning Russia as the thorniest side of the United States and the post-Cold War war that monopolized maritime activities in the Mediterranean. "
Finally, Russian President Putin wants to establish himself in Libya in the same way that he dug in Syria, and he goes about that while he realizes the need for Haftar, who still controls vital areas in Libya, as an ally in his hand to provide the necessary military support that pushes to change the direction of the battle in Libya, but there are still dilemmas facing this Russian desire, not least of which is the late US action that is now calling on the reconciliation government to thwart a process to build a military base on the Libyan Mediterranean coast and shed more light on Russia’s actions in Libya, including the Pentagon’s decision to confront Russia openly on Deploying "MiG-29s" fighter aircraft and accusing it of aiming to counter attempts to thwart efforts to salvage US policy in Libya, and threatening to impose sanctions on all groups involved in providing arms to Libya, including arms suppliers, shipping companies, and insurance companies, isolate Russia in its attempts to tilt the balance of power in Libya is the best way to stop its attempts to increase its influence in North Africa.