Khalifa Haftar was born in 1943 in the city of Ajdabiya, west of Benghazi, and is a member of the central Libyan al-Farjani tribe which formed a key link between Muammar Gaddafi and Libyan tribes.

Khalifa Haftar was born in 1943 in the city of Ajdabiya, west of Benghazi, and is a member of the central Libyan al-Farjani tribe which formed a key link between Muammar Gaddafi and Libyan tribes. He graduated from the Benghazi Military Academy in 1966.

As a young army officer, Haftar took part in the coup that ushered Gaddafi to power in 1969. Haftar became a colonel in 1980 and went on to become a commander of the ground forces.

In 1987, Haftar commanded Libyan forces during the Chadian–Libyan conflict, which ended in defeat for Libya and where thousands of Libyan soldiers were killed. Haftar and 600-700 of his men were captured as prisoners of war. As a result of US mediation with Chad’s president and his French allies, these soldiers were given the choice to either return to Libya or to go to the US.

While a small number returned to Libya, most went to USA, led by Haftar who settled in Virginia. Haftar had aligned himself with the National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL) which appointed him national army chief. He tried to form a military force from Libyan exiles to lead a military coup from the Libyan-Chadian border with coordination with the C.I.A.

Thwarted coup plan

That scheme however was thwarted when Edriss Déby, a rebel leader loyal to Gaddafi, came to power in N’Djamena in 1990. The NFSL then sought to plan a military coup by contacting officers within Libya. However, just before it was set to kick off in October 1993, the operation was uncovered. Following the failure of the coup attempt and a flurry of accusations within the NFSL of leaking information, Haftar broke away from the NFSL and brokered an Egyptian-sponsored deal with the regime, under which he and his family resided in Egypt on the condition that he would not take any political action against Gaddafi’s regime.

When the 2011 revolution took place, Haftar traveled from Egypt to Benghazi by land. On arrival he found that only the dissident Minister of Interior, the late Abdul Fateh Younis, was heading the rebel forces comprising both military and civilians. His arrival sparked a raging power struggle about who should become the military commander.

In effect Haftar was soon excluded both militarily and politically from two successive governments in 2012-2013. On February 14, 2014, he appeared on Al-Arabiya, a non-Libyan TV channel, declaring that forces loyal to him controlled military and strategic sites around the country, and demanding a halt to the parliament and the government. Haftar introduced a road map for Libya’s political future, as if copying Abdelfattah el-Sisi but lacking a strong united disciplined army or a majority of popular support.

In reality, his declared coup was a fake. Not a single soldier remained loyal to him after he had been abandoned by his key supporters Zintan Militia. Nonetheless, he persevered. In May 2014, Haftar led operation Libyan Dignity where hundreds of soldiers and officers from the Libyan army in Benghazi stood up against the armed Islamist groups controlling Benghazi and accused by the majority of the city’s population of being terrorist groups responsible for hundreds of assassinations against army and police officers and civil society activists.

Haftar the saviour?

Soon, increasing numbers military and volunteers joined the operation. Haftar soon became seen as a savior by most people in the eastern area. As a result, when the internationally recognized Council of Deputies (CoD) fled to Tobruk and the government went to Bayda in eastern Libya, Haftar became their defender as he controlled the area. Under pressure from pro-Haftar supporters of CoD members, tribal chiefs and military leaders, the CoD’s president, as the commander in chief of the armed forces, appointed Haftar commander in chief of the Army.

Western Libya also has a parallel parliament – the General National Congress – and its president is also the commander in chief of the Army, and it also has a minister of defense and a chief of staff. As for the southern region, it has been sucked into its own downward spiral, while the north of the country is a 1,800-kilometer long Mediterranean opposite southern Europe.

Thus, the country is deeply divided along many lines, ideological, regional, tribal and between banditry militias. The United Nations has reacted and its efforts yielded the Libya Political Agreement (LPA) reached in Skhirat in December.

Article 8 of the LPA appears to be an obstacle to gain the approval of the agreement by the Council of it by the Council of Deputies because it is meant to remove Haftar as appeasement to forces controlling western Libya who consider him heading a counter-revolution.

Representing the Islamic Libyan Fighting Group’s ideology, those controlling Tripoli will not accept any agreement that does not give them control over state policy under the jurisdiction of the Grand Mufti, meaning that there is no easy solution in sight.