File image.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia have stepped up pressure on Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA), over facilitating Emirati military support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, the Middle East Eye reported on January 22.
The RSF, which is backed by the United Arab Emirates, has been engaged in a power struggle with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), allied to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and others, for close to three years now.
The news outlet said that the pressure is a part of a broader Egyptian-Saudi effort to block flows of arms, fuel and fighters to the RSF, curb the UAE influence across the Middle East, especially in the border triangle between Egypt, Sudan and Libya.
Earlier this month, specifically on January 9, Egypt struck an arms shipment that was heading from an area held by the LNA in southeast Libya to the RSF in the border triangle between the three countries. The attack reportedly caused significant losses.
Two days after the attack, Saddam Haftar, Khalifa’s son and deputy commander-in-chief of the LAN, visited Cairo and met Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Meguid Saker and other senior military and security officials.
Egyptian and Libyan media portrayed the meeting as focused on military cooperation, but MME said that the main topic discussed was the RSF.
“Saddam Haftar was literally summoned to Egypt, not invited for a courtesy visit, after confirmation that the UAE had supplied the RSF with weapons, military equipment, portable air defence systems and drones with the help of the LNA,” a senior Egyptian military source told the outlet.
“Egyptian intelligence and military officials delivered a strongly worded warning to Khalifa Haftar through his son, presenting evidence of fuel deliveries to RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo from Libya’s Sarir refinery, alongside weapons shipments from the UAE,” he added.
According to the source, Egypt has aerial imagery showing weapons shipments moving from Abu Dhabi to Haftar, and from there to the RSF, as well as Libyan fuel tankers transporting fuel to the RSF in Darfur.
“Egyptian security bodies have also monitored, through audio and visual surveillance, the arrival of mercenaries from Colombia and Venezuela into Libya, from where they are transferred to Sudan to join the RSF,” the source said.
“Without such support, the RSF would not have achieved its recent advances,” he continued.
“The message was clear: continued support for the RSF would force Egypt to reconsider its entire relationship with eastern Libya,” he added.
The UAE is a main backer of the LNA. According to MME, Egypt and Saudi Arabia offered Saddam Haftar cooperation and alternative backing.
In recent weeks, efforts to curb UAE influence in the region became very clear, with Saudi Arabia taking the lead by expelling Emirate forces from Yemen and forcing Abu Dhabi’s main proxy in the country, the Southern Transitional Council, to dissolve itself.
The Egyptian strikes on RSF supplies followed up, then Somalia ended all security and defense agreements with the UAE, citing alleged breaches of the country’s sovereignty, national unity, and political independence.
Abu Dhabi has been accused of backing the breakaway region of Somaliland in the north of the country, which was very recently recognized by Israel.
In addition to efforts to drive the LNA away from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are reportedly working on a military alliance that also includes Somalia. It won’t be surprising if this alliance expands to include the SAF.
Soon, these countries could move directly to cut all supplies to the RSF. This would leave the paramilitary group completely exposed to the SAF. An intervention against Somaliland is, however, less likely due to the region’s newly-funded relations with Israel.
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usa penetrated the an*us of muammar gaddafi & libya…heheheheh…the same is coming to the mullahs in iran soon…hehheehhe
it’s all just contrivance to confuse and deceive.