Tue 16 November 2021:
Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar said on Tuesday that he will run for president in the country’s upcoming elections.
Haftar stated in a televised statement that elections are the only way out of the Libyan conflict.
Haftar is a divisive figure in Libyan politics, backed by regional powers like as Egypt, France, and Russia.
Libya’s presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for December 24, 2020, according to a UN-sponsored agreement struck by Libyan political adversaries during meetings in Tunisia on November 15, 2020.
After leading a 14-month military offensive with the support of foreign powers to topple the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in the west, Haftar’s self-proclaimed “Commander-in-Chief of the Libyan National Army” has contributed significantly to Libya’s decade-long turmoil.
Since Haftar’s defeat in June 2020, mass graves in Libya’s southern city of Tarhuna, a previous stronghold for the warlord, have been uncovered, with hundreds of dead excavated.
Who is Khalifa Haftar?
After assisting Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi in gaining power in 1969, Haftar lost out with his master in the late 1980s and sought shelter in the United States.
During the 2011 uprising that resulted in Gaddafi’s overthrow and eventual death, Haftar resurfaced on the Libyan political scene.
He joined the Libyan rebels and established his base and strength in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Despite the February agreement that established a unity government in Libya, Haftar continues to operate independently of the legal government and heads an armed militia that controls broad areas in the east.
On September 22, Haftar handed his military command to his chief of staff for a three-month period in order to prepare for elections.
Despite continued difficulties between the parliament, the High Council of State, and the unity government over electoral powers and laws, the oil-rich country’s electoral commission launched registration for candidates in the polls on Nov. 8.
Libyans are hoping that the upcoming elections would help to resolve an armed conflict that has ravaged the oil-rich country for years.
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