Closing the border: Khalifa Haftar's response to Algerian President Tebboune
Eastern Libyan military leader Khalifa Haftar, January 2020 in Athens (illustration).
REUTERS / Costas Baltas
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Government of National Unity unilaterally announced the opening of the coastal road between Sirte and Misrata, a road which is still closed on the side of Khalifa Haftar's forces.
The latter carried out the largest military operation since last October, and the ensuing peace agreement.
He has just declared having closed the border with Algeria.
Khalifa Haftar thus sends several messages to the international community, and especially to Algeria.
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It is in the name of the fight against terrorism in southern Libya that the forces of Marshal Khalifa Haftar have advanced towards the border area with Algeria near the town of Ghat located in the southwest of the country.
They announced the closure of the Aysin crossing point, but this point had already been closed for several years.
They declared it a “
forbidden and closed military zone
”.
Since his appointment, the Libyan executive in Tripoli has been leading discussions with Algiers for the opening of this passage, which is useful for trade between the two countries, and these discussions were going well.
Khalifa Haftar's forces, sources say in Ghat, however, are far from controlling the long borders between the two countries, used by traffickers and terrorists of all nationalities.
Berlin conference
This initiative comes about ten days after remarks by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune that were very badly received in Benghazi.
The Algerian head of state then explained that at the worst time of the Battle of Tripoli, Algiers had not ruled out intervening militarily to counter the offensive of Marshal Haftar and his Russian allies.
Today, Khalifa Haftar also seems to want to remind the international community, on the eve of the new Berlin conference on the Libyan crisis, of his desire to influence the political scene of the new Libya.
He challenges the interim authorities in Tripoli supported by the international community.
► See also: Libya: reopening of the coastal road between Misrata and Sirte
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