{"id":53700,"date":"2020-06-15T11:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53700"},"modified":"2020-06-15T11:00:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T16:00:10","slug":"turkeys-big-bet-has-put-libya-in-center-of-a-global-power-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=53700","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s Big Bet Has Put Libya in Center of a Global Power Struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Turkey\u2019s Big Bet Has Put Libya in Center of a Global Power Struggle<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The series of debilitating military setbacks<\/a> that Libya\u2019s renegade general Khalifa Haftar suffered in recent months have spurred diplomatic activities over the conflict in the country. But the war is far from over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haftar\u2019s dream of capturing Tripoli from the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has been dashed. Haftar\u2019s Libyan National Army (LNA) has retreated from several cities northwest of Tripoli, near the border with Tunisia, as well as the al-Watiya airbase<\/a>, a strategic asset southwest of the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A comeback by Haftar can only take place in the fullness of time and that too, if his mentors\u2014France, Egypt, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Russia\u2014repose confidence in him still. Haftar seems to have overreached, and the present setback dents his credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt reacted swiftly by getting Haftar and Aguila Saleh Issa, the head of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives\u2014the third protagonist in the Libyan strife\u2014over to Cairo for a patch-up, following which, on June 6<\/a>, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi announced a grandiose roadmap called the Cairo Declaration<\/a> to end the Libyan conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cairo Declaration envisages<\/a> a ceasefire starting June 8 (which didn\u2019t happen) followed by \u201cdisbanding militias, handing over their arms, pulling out foreign forces, electing a ruling presidential council representing all Libyans and drafting of a constitutional declaration to regulate elections for later stages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sisi\u2019s Cairo Declaration<\/a> has been welcomed by the Gulf states and Russia, while the GNA backed by Turkey remains disinterested and hopes to make some more territorial gains so as to be able to negotiate from a position of strength. The GNA and Turkey estimate\u2014rightly so\u2014that any respite at this point will be utilized by Haftar and his backers to recoup and plan anew to return to the battlefield to make another bid to rule Libya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turkey\u2019s Big Bet Has Put Libya in Center of a Global Power Struggle Drawing by Nathaniel St. Clair The series of debilitating military setbacks that Libya\u2019s renegade general Khalifa Haftar suffered in recent months have spurred diplomatic activities over the conflict in the country. But the war is far from over. Haftar\u2019s dream of capturing Tripoli from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5493,29891,484,29890],"class_list":["post-53700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-counterpunch","tag-fayez-al-sarraj","tag-libya","tag-m-k-bhadrakumar-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53700"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53702,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53700\/revisions\/53702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}