Opinion: France loves giving lessons but is fully disastrous in Libya
While France is denouncing Turkey’s interference in the Libyan conflict, its support for warlord Khalifa Haftar explains that many Libyans accuse him of doing the same.
“Unacceptable interference” ! “We can’t stand with that” !
This is how Paris denounced the increasingly aggressive and assertive policy of Turkey in Libya”. Indeed if President Erdoğan has clearly chosen his side in this civil war, France is not to be outdone: she too took sides in this conflict which cut the country in two, caused the displacement of some 400,000 Libyans, drove 650,000 of them on the roads of exile and killed at least 30,000. Ankara also responded to Paris’ accusations by describing French policy in Libya as “obscure and inexplicable”.
Turkey on the Libyan Prime Minister’s side
Violating the embargo imposed by the United Nations, Ankara supplied arms, drones and cannons to the government of national understanding (GEN) led in Tripoli by Fayez el-Sarraj. The Turkish President and the Libyan Prime Minister signed two agreements at the end of 2019, one security and the other maritime, giving Turkey access to areas claimed by Greece and Cyprus. This is a sine qua condition not imposed by Ankara, before a few hundred Turkish officers and several thousand Syrian anti-Assad mercenaries are sent to Libya in support of the GEN army.
Without this Turkish logistical and tactical support, the Libyan Prime Minister would not have been able, in recent weeks, to overturn the balance to his advantage and to rout the Libyan National Army (ANL) of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, supported in Cyrenaica, by the “anti-Muslim Brotherhood” front formed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as by Russia and … France. This is French support which explains why when Paris denounces the interference of Ankara, many Libyans return politeness to him.
Is France from the War’s side ?
The criticism is not unfounded but it deserves a few nuances. Contrary to the Turkish Islamo-nationalist government which describes France as “boss of the axis of evil”, the French authorities have “not recently” carried out arms delivery, only “anti-missile batteries a few years ago years, “according to some sources. They also did not send troops or mercenaries, but several agents from the Directorate General of External Services (DGSE) were indeed sent to Libya, some of whom lost their lives. The Libyan offensive of Turkey meets several objectives, economic, energy, ideological as well as internal policy. Dictated by its security interests — 3,500 to 4,000 soldiers fight on the southern border of Libya in the Sahel — the choice of Paris for the Marshal of Cyrenaica is not without other considerations either.
“Haftar sold himself as a bulwark to jihadist groups, but he is a warlord whose use of force never distinguishes the moderates. He is the “man” of the United Arab Emirates on which France has aligned himself, including ideologically it would seem, declared Jalel Harchaoui, researcher at the Clingendael Institute in La Hague. In the eyes of Jean-Yves le Drian, (Foreign deputy in France) the UAE constitutes “the” ideal partner. They are rich, disciplined and ultra militarized. And then, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs shares their intolerance as well as that of Egypt with regard to political Islam and Islamic populism. Emmanuel Macron, who did not know much about the region, followed suit with his minister. Result: if France did not actively lead the war alongside Haftar, contrary to what the Turks say, it is true that Paris provided a Western and diplomatic varnish to the Marshal. And it was essential ! ”
The political advantage that France could have derived from its aerial support for the liquidation of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, already much weakened by the Libyan chaos that ensued, has largely sank due to this support for Marshal Haftar. And the silences of our authorities have been deafening. What did they not denounce the Emirati, Egyptian or Russian interventionism or even the violation of the arms embargo by the United Arab Emirates, for the benefit of “the strong man of Cyrenaica”? It is true that the UAE is a big customer of the French arms industry.
Have French authorities not made public the presence of pro-Assad Syrian mercenaries, routed by Russia as auxiliaries to the Libyan National Army (ANL)?
And then, from April 2019 and the offensive of Khalifa Haftar to take Tripoli, seat of the government of Fayez el-Sarraj, recognized by the UN since 2016, France denounced the bombings committed by the Marshal? Has she distanced herself from him or even denounced the oil blockade decreed by “their” man in early 2020? No. Three times no. Once again, a succession of deafening silences. “In the name of the“ fight against terrorism ”, the room for maneuver that France enjoys in Libya has been reduced. Today, his Libyan policy is dependent on the very stubborn United Arab Emirates, since it is inconceivable in Paris to contradict them. The result is that Macron’s France is thinking today as a small power in the Middle East. She is locked in this exclusive and not very close friendship, ”regrets Jalel Harchaoui.
This is France’s responsibility
What is most astonishing in this history, it is the apparent blindness which the Quai d’Orsay showed with regard to Turkey whereas it counts several excellent diplomats, some of which stationed in Brussels, in Ankara and even at the head of the DGSE know President Erdoğan and Turkish politics perfectly. These people must have known that since 2011, the Islamo-nationalist government has linked the Libyan question to the question of the eastern Mediterranean.
