...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
and strongman General 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..., whose Libyan National Army (LNA) keeps a tight grip on the East of the country, held a surprise meeting in the United Arab Emirates.
The encounter spurred fears among Serraj's supporters that the conditions discussed in the Gulf country, a powerful sponsor of General Haftar, may disrupt a UN-brokered peace plan, known as the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA), rather than help it.
The UN deal was signed in 2015 but is widely considered as insufficient to reconcile internal rivalries.
UAE officials hailed the meeting as a major breakthrough after 18 months of stalemate between Tripoli and Tobruk. But analysts have been left wondering if a real discussion between the two reluctant leaders took place at all and why the talks didn't produce any official documents.
Rumours have been swirling around about the results of the meeting and how binding they would be.
According to diplomatic sources, the talks focused on reducing the Presidential Council from nine to three members, to include the head of the Armed Forces, Khalifa Haftar, the head of the House of Representatives Aqila Saleh, and the head of the unity government, Fayez Serraj.
The controversial Article 8 of the Shikrat agreement submitting the army to civil authority would be abolished. Serraj and Haftar also allegedly agreed to work on presidential and parliamentary elections in the Spring of 2018.