[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The commander of the Libyan army, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
confirmed the insistence of the Libyan troops to continue fighting "until the armed forces extends its control over the entire Libyan territory."
On Monday morning and during a presser with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Haftar asserted: "We have been involved in political settlements at the request of sister countries. I started with meeting the President of the Presidential Council Fayez al-Siraj in Abu Dhabi and then in Gay Paree, but he disregarded many of the agreed upon principles and conditions."
He added that: "The whole world has been following the sacrifices of the army for three years in its fight against terrorism under an unjust siege represented by the prohibition of arming it in parallel with unlimited support for terrorism," stressing that the army is determined to continue its mission in the fight against terrorism throughout the country.
International mediators called not to resort to what he called "ready-made solutions to resolve the Libyan crisis," asserting that there will not be any support for any political settlement unless it is " under the sponsorship of the United Nations
...an idea whose time has gone...
, and that Moscow actively supports the political process and the restoration of the Libyan state structures."
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar arrived in Moscow at the invitation of Russia to discuss a number of files. The Information Office of the Libyan army leadership commented that among the issues discussed is "ways to support the fight against terrorism and the latest political situation in Libya."