It has been years since the fall of Qaddafi and in those years Libya has become a battlefield for terrorists, Westerners and ideologies….the country has sunk into a deadly civil war with different factions claiming control of the country….

We have a new president and the foreign policy toward Libya with his ascent to the tower of power….no one is sure what will come….

Just days before he left his digs in DC Obama called for a massive airstrike in Libya…….

As he’s done several times since last summer, Barack Obama, in one of his final acts as president this week, ordered a bombing raid against Islamic State (IS) militants “in conjunction” with Tripoli’s UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA).

The raid on militants who were fleeing the former IS stronghold of Sirte reportedly killed more than 80 fighters and sent a clear message on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration that the Pentagon is fully committed to the fight against the terrorist group. Just as significantly, the Pentagon’s statement highlighting the GNA’s role reminded the incoming administration that the United States has a Libyan partner in that fight.

On January 11, 2017, Field Commander Khalifa Haftar, the head of the Libyan National Army (LNA), was a guest aboard the Russian aircraft carrier The Admiral Kuznetsov, docked off the Libyan coast at Tobruk, en route from Syria back to Russia. During his tour of Russia’s only aircraft carrier, General Haftar held a closed-circuit video conference with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. It was the third time in seven months that Haftar was hosted by Moscow and spoke with Shoigu. Haftar is seeking Russian weapons, banned under a still-in-effect United Nations arms embargo. Russia did provide General Haftar’s LNA with medical equipment and other non-lethal aid during the carrier visit. And in 2016, Russia printed 4 billion Libyan dinars, equivalent to $2.8 billion, in a formal contract with the Libyan central bank. The funds were delivered to a location in eastern Libya under General Haftar’s control. 

Since September 2016, Haftar’s LNA has controlled the four major oil ports in the Gulf of Sirte and two of the country’s largest oil fields in the east.  He enjoys the backing of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and France. Now, with the strong addition of Russia, General Haftar is testing his ability to consolidate military control over parts of western Libya that have been outside of his control since the start of the power struggle, following the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime in late 2011.