Burns issued warnings to Haftar.. What did the CIA director want in his visit to Libya?

Tripoli / Washington

- CIA Director William Burns's visit to Libya came one month after Washington received the Libyan citizen Abu Ajila al-Marimi from the National Unity Government in Tripoli, who is accused of manufacturing a bomb used in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

The visit of the head of the CIA, William Burns, to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to meet with Prime Minister Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba and the city of Benghazi to meet with retired Major General Khalifa Haftar, raised many questions about the purpose of the visit and who was the senior American security official.

And private sources of Al-Jazeera Net revealed in a previous report details of the American official's meetings with the two men, and what he asked of them to control the security situation in Libya.

Washington's interests are multiple and intertwined in Libya, especially after the reports presented by the US military and intelligence presence in Libya about the activities of mercenaries and Russian military equipment, as American press reports indicate that some Russian mercenaries may have left Libya to support operations in Ukraine, although Libya has not It remains the logistical hub for their operations in sub-Saharan Africa.

During the 2019-2020 clashes, the executive authorities stationed in western and eastern Libya competed for power and international recognition, and Washington chose to support the United Nations leadership for settlement initiatives between the two parties, and they stressed the importance of maintaining the ceasefire and the neutrality of institutions such as the National Oil Corporation, and American officials have maintained These approaches in 2022, balancing concerns about Libya with other U.S. objectives regarding Russia, Egypt, Turkey, France, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates.

This requires reading from the Libyan and American sides about Washington's sudden interest in the Libyan file, and what worries it about the security and political conflict between the Libyan parties, and what are its demands from the parties to secure its interests in Libya?

American priorities in Libya

A study of the Congressional Research Service, the research body that provides documented information and data to members of both houses of Congress, revealed several key issues and concerns for Washington in Libya:

• terrorist threats.

• Securing the continued export of oil and natural gas.

• Using Libya as a transit station for refugees and migrants heading to Europe.

• Securing stockpiles of weapons and non-conventional weapons materials.

• Foreign military intervention and the presence of mercenaries in it, since Libya is an arena for ideological and security competitions in the Middle East.

Given that Libya falls within the scope of the military operations of the US military command in Africa (AFRICOM), the study indicates Washington's concern about Russia restoring its strong relations with Libya, securing profitable investments with it, and undermining the influence of Western Europe and the United States.

In 2019, AFRICOM confirmed to Congress that Russia was "invoking Gaddafi-era relations and debts to obtain economic and military contracts aimed at accessing the vast Libyan oil market, reviving arms sales, and access to coastal lands."

Security intelligence work first

Thomas Hill, an expert on Libyan affairs at the US Institute of Peace, called earlier on President Joe Biden's administration for a stronger and clearer US participation in diplomatic efforts to resolve the Libyan conflict.

In a recent study by the Institute of Peace, Hill indicated that "successive US administrations have shown little or no desire to resolve the Libyan crisis."

For his part, Jonathan Weiner, the former envoy to Libya under former US President Barack Obama and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement Affairs, told Al Jazeera Net that "the CIA director's visit did not come by chance, and there is always a specific agenda."

The former official posited that Burns' goals were to secure an agreement on intelligence and security cooperation on identified domestic or regional terrorist threats.

“Burnes may have expressed concern about the negative influence of the Wagner Group on Libya's sub-Saharan neighbors, using Libya as a base. In my opinion, it would be best for Libya and the entire MENA region and the Sahel not to have the Wagner Group welcome in Libya,” Ambassador Weiner added. ".

It is likely that the visit "included thanks to those whom he met for helping to hand over to Washington Abu Ajila al-Marimi," who is accused of manufacturing the bomb used in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie.

Two sides of similar motives

Political writer and expert on US policies in Libya from Boston, Muhammad Buisir, tells Al-Jazeera Net about the reasons for the visit of CIA chief William Burns to Libya, "The United States had agreed to Turkey's intervention in Tripoli in 2019 in order to prevent the Russians from entering the capital and to achieve a military balance, And now America has passed this stage to try to get them out of Libya."

Despite the writer's reference to the high and continuous coordination between the Turks and the Russians in several files in the region, including the Libyan file, he believes that the Russian threat remains a strong motive for the American move at this level.

Alternative government and wanted

Buisir explains that the US official, Burns, informed the head of the National Unity Government, Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba, and retired Major General Khalifa Haftar, about a group of matters rejected by Washington, "related to the Russians, the alternative government, the postponement of elections, and the oil shutdown."

A colleague at the Institute of International Studies at the American Hopkins University, Hafez Al-Ghwell, agrees with Buisir's clarification, but he disagreed with him that the visit touched on the Lockerbie case and the extradition of some personalities, such as the intelligence official in the Gaddafi regime, Abdullah Al-Senussi.

Although Buisir believes that "it is decided that Libya will sign a pledge before the Security Council, to cooperate with the investigation efforts in the Lockerbie case in particular, and it does not require negotiation."

A prelude to an international western movement

Al-Ghawil believes that the visit was a mistake, and that it has no value for the Libyans. Rather, it may be exploited by personalities such as Dabaiba and Haftar to market themselves and give wrong messages to the Libyans, which explains why Burns did not appear with Haftar, who is convicted of war crimes before the US judiciary.

This is the same as what the analyst Buisir went to, telling Al-Jazeera Net, "The Americans only think of a solution that achieves stability, represented in a government that governs all the countries, includes Libya within the Western alliance, and permanently excludes the Russians."

Buisir believes that the United States will start putting pressure on Cairo, which is in need of American aid more than ever, in order to achieve progress in the Libyan file, in which the United States is moving “unilaterally and urgently, and Europe will follow it with an international front that will be absent from Russia and China, and this is the reason for the visit of an envoy.” A very high profile person with direct contact with President Biden."