Trump officials snub strongman Khalifa Haftar as US shifts course on Libya

Administration gives Libyan National Army chief cold shoulder less than two months after Trump showed support in surprise call

Martin Chulov Middle East correspondent and Julian Borger in Washington
Sat 8 Jun 2019 07.00 BST Last modified on Sat 8 Jun 2019 07.01 BST

The Trump administration has given the cold shoulder to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, less than two months after Trump appeared to show support for him in a surprise phone call, and is now rethinking its policy towards the country’s civil war, according to multiple sources in the US and the region.

Encouraged by the 15 April call, Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) hired lobbyists in Washington in the hope of arranging an official visit by the field marshal, who is a dual Libyan-US national, or one of his top aides, to reinforce the impression that he had US backing in his offensive against the UN-backed government in Tripoli.

However, the lobbying firm, Linden Strategies – hired on a one-year, $2m contract – has yet to make progress as the tide shifts inside the Trump administration. With a volatile president, who has shown himself especially prone to persuasion from the Gulf monarchies and Egypt, policy could zigzag again.

For now, US officials insist that Trump’s phone call to Haftar was a personal favour to the Egyptian president, Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, who was visiting Washington a few days earlier, and did not signify a shift in US policy.

“State and defence were not aware of the Trump call, let alone supported it,” said Jonathan Winer, a former US envoy on Libya. “It has taken a wrecking ball to our Libya policy.”

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