...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, 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, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. 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. Actually, he is, but slowly..., praised the Speaker of the Libyan Parliament Ageela Saleh for his "positive role in resolving the Libyan issue."
During a meeting with senior military officers, Haftar hailed Ageela Saleh as a "patriotic person par excellence and a true supporter of the armed forces throughout his tenure as the Libyan Parliament Speaker," the LNA’s Media Office reported in a statement.
"In the conclusion of his speech, Field Marshal Haftar indicated that Saleh belongs to an important tribe that offered deaders for the sake of Libya," the statement added.
Libya has been plagued by a state of insecurity and chaos since 2011. The war-torn country is now run by two different executive bodies, but participants to the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) have voted this week on the mechanism for selecting a unified executive authority.
This vote took place on Thursday and Friday 3-4 December 2020. On Saturday, the Acting Special Representative of the United-Nations’ Secretary General in Libya, Stephanie Williams, hosted a virtual meeting to inform the LPDF participants of the vote’s results and to discuss ways forward in this political track.