The sudden appearance of Gen. Khalifa Hiftar on the Libyan political scene has only worsened an already chaotic situation in the North African country. The man, a one time ally of ousted leader Muammar Qaddafi, says his mission is to rid the country of Al-Qaeda and its associates. And he seems to have begun his professed job in earnest.
His rivals have called him a CIA agent working for his masters and out to grab power. They have threatened to “open the doors of Hell” for the general.
Hiftar has been able to bring under his umbrella the air force and most units of the armed forces. Al-Qaeda and its allied militias too have finally found a mission since Qaddafi’s ouster: They can now direct their fire power on an “enemy” after months of terrorizing the general population with wanton killings.
The last thing the world needs is a re-enactment of the Syrian crisis in North Africa. But that precisely seems the situation Libya is heading for.
The civil war has begun.
Hiftar’s planes have started bombing rival targets and it’s anybody’s guess how soon fighters from around the world would start pouring into Libya to set right this imbalance in the war.
Libya has virtually been without a government since the collapse of the Qaddafi regime in October 2011. Although experts have been quietly working for sometime on a constitution in the peaceful port city of Al-Baida, the country has been unable to decide on a head of government in the interim. In the past, a former prime minister, Ali Zeidan, was kidnapped. He also suffered the ignominy of being ousted by Parliament. Now the country has two rival prime ministers in Abdullah Al-Thinni and Ahmed Maiteg.
Hiftar has seized this opportunity and is obviously trying to fill this power vacuum. With Libya’s vast oil wealth at stake, world and regional powers are waiting to see how the situation unfolds.
With the air force on Hiftar’s side, it’s not difficult to guess the outcome of the war. Other factors remaining constant (read without outside interference), it’s only a matter of time before the general installs himself in Tripoli.
So after a couple of years of anarchy in the name of democracy, Libya gets a dictator and much-needed stability, and is back to square one.
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