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As most will have heard there is a 'civil' war going on in Libya between the UN recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) and an outfit called the Libyan National Army (LNA) run by a guy who calls himself 'Field Marshal' Khalifa Haftar, a former officer under Gaddafi who turned against him. In reality though this has become a proxy war primarily though not only between Turkey and Muscovy with Turkey supporting the Tripoli based GNA and Muscovy backing the Tobruk/Benghazi based LNA. Recently the LNA has been forced to withdraw from the Tripoli area.
This however is only the start of this mess... which according to some revolves around energy interests in the whole Eastern Mediterranean dating back to an accord signed by Israel, Cyprus and Greece for an undersea pipeline back at the start of January (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKBN1Z10R5) which naturally Turkey (who has been busy looking for gas in Cypriot waters) opposed. The Turkish - Muscovite 'stand off' in Syria also plays into the Libyan rivalry of course.
The LNA, who's principal backers are Muscovy, claim that the GNA is a hotbed of rabid Jihadi extremism (Daesh, Islamic Brotherhood, Al Quaida etc) so recently Egypt's President Sisi has threatened that any GNA advance east toward Sirte might lead to (greater) Egyptian involvement. The French President Macron, who is busy fighting Jihadi in the Malian Sahara, then recently said that the Egyptians have a point. Thus the Franco Muscovite 'reconciliation' talk we have been hearing out of Paris recently (Macron is meeting Putin today). Naturally the Greeks, Cypriots and Israeli's who want to exclude the Turks from their pipeline project also tacitly support the 'Field Marshall' and his LNA. As some may recall the Syrian war started in part though not entirely over the issue of Qatari gas pipelines going through Syria to Turkey/Europe so Qatar in the Libyan case is still on the Turkish side (thus the Saudis and Emirates accuse the Qatari's of supporting 'terrorists'). The other European countries are trying to keep out of the mess - the Italians are more inclined to the GNA side as they already have a pipeline to Western Libya and a deal with Tripoli about refugee camps. Germany is not interested and has North Stream problems. The US is busy dealing with Trumpification.
Here's a rabidly anti Turkish article that while not representing the whole conflict of interests is indicative of the mad mess; https://english.alarabiya.net/en/vie...ean-Union.html
This however is only the start of this mess... which according to some revolves around energy interests in the whole Eastern Mediterranean dating back to an accord signed by Israel, Cyprus and Greece for an undersea pipeline back at the start of January (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKBN1Z10R5) which naturally Turkey (who has been busy looking for gas in Cypriot waters) opposed. The Turkish - Muscovite 'stand off' in Syria also plays into the Libyan rivalry of course.
The LNA, who's principal backers are Muscovy, claim that the GNA is a hotbed of rabid Jihadi extremism (Daesh, Islamic Brotherhood, Al Quaida etc) so recently Egypt's President Sisi has threatened that any GNA advance east toward Sirte might lead to (greater) Egyptian involvement. The French President Macron, who is busy fighting Jihadi in the Malian Sahara, then recently said that the Egyptians have a point. Thus the Franco Muscovite 'reconciliation' talk we have been hearing out of Paris recently (Macron is meeting Putin today). Naturally the Greeks, Cypriots and Israeli's who want to exclude the Turks from their pipeline project also tacitly support the 'Field Marshall' and his LNA. As some may recall the Syrian war started in part though not entirely over the issue of Qatari gas pipelines going through Syria to Turkey/Europe so Qatar in the Libyan case is still on the Turkish side (thus the Saudis and Emirates accuse the Qatari's of supporting 'terrorists'). The other European countries are trying to keep out of the mess - the Italians are more inclined to the GNA side as they already have a pipeline to Western Libya and a deal with Tripoli about refugee camps. Germany is not interested and has North Stream problems. The US is busy dealing with Trumpification.
Here's a rabidly anti Turkish article that while not representing the whole conflict of interests is indicative of the mad mess; https://english.alarabiya.net/en/vie...ean-Union.html
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