PREVIEW
The rescue of an American hostage has bolstered the Haftars' standing in Washington's unity plan, days after Libya's rival factions signed a roadmap to elections
Libya's power-sharing arithmetic shifted further in the Haftar family's favour this month after Saddam Haftar, son of the eastern commander Khalifa Haftar, was publicly credited by freed American hostage Kevin Rideout for securing his release from an Islamic State affiliate in the Sahel.
There is still confusion over whether Rideout, a pilot working for a Christian missionary organisation in Niger who was abducted close to Niamey airport, was freed after payment of a ransom or following a military operation in Mali led by the LNA. Rideout was handed over to the Benghazi-based Government of National Stability, backed by Haftar’s LNA last week.
Either way, Haftar’s involvement in Rideout’s release burnishes his credentials with Washington and his status as a security power broker. President Donald Trump’s Africa envoy Massad Boulos’s plan for power sharing by the Tripoli and Benghazi-based rival governments gives Haftar and his sons crucial roles at the top of government. Under Boulos’s plan, Haftar would lead a presidential council ahead of elections earmarked for February 2027 (AC Vol 67 No 14, The Haftar-Hemeti warlord connection catches up with Washington & Vol 67 No 17, Chinese capital tests the limits of Washington’s diplomatic offer).
The power of the Haftar clan was further underscored on 20 August when Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi welcomed Haftar and his sons, LNA Chief of Staff, Khaled Haftar, and Qassem Haftar, the director of the Libya Reconstruction and Development Fund, for talks in Cairo just weeks after Sisi hosted Abdel Hamid Dubaiba, the Prime Minister of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity.
There is still plenty of scepticism in the Dubaiba camp about the Boulos plan, though he would remain as Prime Minister and retain control of the central financial institutions and the commercial economy of western Libya.
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