Let’s look at the latest comedy of errors in Libya courtesy of the US, UN and the UK and their appointed Presidency Council (PC) and Government of National Accord (GNA).
East Libya ordered four billion Libyan dinars to be printed by a Russian factory and first deliveries were to be made available through banks from June 1.
Last week the PC wrote to the US government saying the four billion was counterfeit. The US issued a formal statement on the Facebook page of the US Embassy in Libya stating they agreed that it was counterfeit.
But the other day, the PC/GNA and Prime Minister designate Fayez Serraj made a volte face and said indeed that the currency being printed in Russia was legal. Will the US retract its statement saying that the democratically elected and internationally recognised Tobruk government is printing counterfeit currencies?
Is Serraj trying to make nice withthe Kremlin?
This episode represents a continuing farce and precedes another human disaster, this time inside the capital which will be caused by the very high temperatures of summer that will create chaos in an overpopulated Tripoli due to the inevitable lack of both water and electricity in such high temperatures. IS will no doubt exploit and even exacerbate these problems.
A fact that must be stated. The estimates of IS in Libya are much exaggerated, though there may also be hundreds of sleepers in, of all places, Tripoli, which may well be the venue for their very last stand in the country.
The Libyans have their own extremist Islamists, which represent the equivalent of IS, that are in the main the very militias the West insists are the army of the GNA; unbelievable.
Despite all denials by the UK government, there are certainly British Forces in Libya working with Misrata militias to attack IS in the Sirte region. Yet, the legitimate Libyan National Army (LNA) based in the east has already secured a number of strategic positions in the Sirte basin.
Will the Misratan militias, with British military help, try to displace the LNA from their held positions in the Sirte basin rather than focus on the relatively small number of IS members that exist there? A disaster with unforeseeable consequences.
To the west of Tripoli, importantly the Zintanis, who fall under the LNA, pose a direct threat to the IS backers in Tripoli. The Zintanis control most of the gas and oil that flows through the territory there to the only oil ports that are accessible to the Dawn militias; sorry I should have called them the GNA forces.
So the ludicrous decision by the Americans, Brits and Italians in Vienna on May 16 to arm Islamist militias under ‘Libya Dawn’, which importantly include the Misratan militias, seems to be proceeding.
The US and Britainare blindsided bytheir love affair with the Muslim Brotherhood. This error in judgement will cost the EU dearly
Did it not occur to them to arm the legitimate LNA commanded Khalifa Hafter who was confirmed in his position by the legitimate House of Representatives in Tobruk? Hafter understands the situation on the ground clearly and is pursuing Tobruk’s interests in going after Libyan IS main bases around and in Sirte.
A disturbing fact is that the other day the PC/GNA did take control of the Interior Ministry which is ‘owned’ by the former head of the AQ affiliate ex-Libyan Islamic Fighters Group, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who is also a Muslim Brotherhood member. Lest we forget, he has a law suit against former Home Secretary Jack Straw and a senior former MI6 official.
The British Ambassador to Libya Peter Millet, under heavy guard, honoured the new Minister of Interior by his much publicised visit there.
So, the extremists have taken that important ministry with at least Western moral support and assistance; how ironic.
The PC/GNA otherwise is a mirage; it does not exist. Other than the extremists that took over the Ministry of Interior, the PC/GNA controls only where it sits; a naval base, popularly called the bunker - a stone’s throw away from the ministry also ‘opened’ by the GNA, the Foreign one - the naval bunker where so called PC members all selected by the West can meet visiting dignitaries.
Designate PM Serraj can’t get into the Prime Minister’s offices.
Most of the time these jokers are outside Libya, in fact, anywhere but in Libya. Serraj was just in Cairo, UAE and Saudi Arabia, for example. Why particularly go to Saudi and the UAE by the way? Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are supporting Tobruk. Is Serraj trying to make new friends with promises of future concessions in Libya in exchange for new support?
Let’s be clear about Serraj; he is an unfortunate patsy of the West and furthermore his position is effectively in the process of being hijacked by Misratan, Abdel Rahman Swehli and members of his family (which include the deputy designate PM Maetig).
Swehli heads the currently yet to be legalised State Council. So you see Serraj is becoming ousted by his own people even before taking power.
What’s the remedy to fix this sham? There is only one Libyan politician that can inhabit the international stage as an equal to any foreign counterparts and that is Mahmoud Jibril.
His public persona is unequalled in the Libyan political spectrum. There is no one in Libya that has Jibril’s stature and credibility. Why didn’t the international community at least have picked him instead of unsuccessful and controversial businessmen like Serraj and Maetig? Or, if not the sophisticated and urbane Jibril, why didn’t the International community pick the Libyan army and its commander Khalifa Hafter?
The answer is simple, unfortunately – the US and Britain are blindsided by their love affair with the Muslim Brotherhood. This error in judgement will cost the EU dearly.
Particularly encouraging is ‘the main weapon’ against us infidels, the Brothers and their friends use, which is the migrat invasion of the EU which representsthe greatest threat to our Western values and freedoms.
Reasonable and moderate Arabs everywhere intensely dislike and distrust the Muslim Brotherhood and fear that the Brothers’ Trojan horse approach has succeeded in penetrating particularly Washington and London at the very highest levels.
In essence it is the Muslim Brotherhood’s philosophy and ideology that both IS and AQ and their ilk adhere to.
Richard Galustian is a security analyst.