GNA head accuses Haftar of 'betrayal', vows to end Tripoli push - Aljazeera.com

The head of Libya's internationally recognised government has accused renegade General Khalifa Haftar of "betraying" him after the latter launched a military offensive aimed at capturing the capital, Tripoli, in a showdown that has sparked fears of a renewed war.

In a televised speech on Saturday, Fayez al-Sarraj said Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) would meet firm resistance from forces loyal to his United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). 

"We have extended our hands towards peace but after the aggression that has taken place on the part of forces belonging to Haftar and his declaration of war against our cities and our capital ... he will find nothing but strength and firmness," Sarraj said.

Sarraj and Haftar held talks in Abu Dhabi in late February, their first confirmed meeting since November 2018, during which they agreed that national elections were necessary, according to the UN.

"They also agreed on ways to maintain stability in the country and unify its institutions," the UN Libya mission said in a Twitter post after the Abu Dhabi meeting. 

Battle for airport

The GNA controls Tripoli, situated in northwestern Libya, while the LNA is allied to a parallel administration based in the east of the oil-rich country, which splintered into a patchwork of competing power bases following the overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Clashes between the rival forces escalated on Saturday, two days after Haftar ordered his eastern forces to storm their way into the capital, with fighting erupting in several areas on the southern outskirts of Tripoli.

Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from the capital, said the city's disused international airport and a clutch of other nearby neighbourhoods on Saturday witnessed "military deployments and sporadic fighting".

190405214022194

GNA officials told Al Jazeera they had taken "full control" of the airport just hours after the LNA said in a statement they were carrying out an operation to secure the site, which sits some 30km south of Tripoli.

The facility has been abandoned since 2014, after suffering extensive damage during heavy fighting between rival armed groups.

Its fall would be a largely symbolic development, even though the LNA said they planned to use the airport as a launching point for missions aimed at seizing key sites within the capital.

Pro-GNA forces have also amassed in the outskirts of city in a bid to push back the LNA offensive, including truckloads of fighters from different powerful militias arriving from Misrata.

"We are getting reports from the eastern outskirts of Tripoli saying that more military units and detachments from Misrata are joining the battle, moving towards the southern outskirts of Tripoli," Abdelwahed said.

In response to Haftar's drive, the GNA has also authorised air attacks against "any military activities by [LNA] forces trying to enter the capital", Abdelwahed said.

Haftar's spokesman, Ahmed al-Mesmari, said the LNA was targeted by four air raids on Saturday, including one in the al-Aziziya region, which sits about 50km south of Tripoli.

"Any fighter jet flying over Tripoli will not be allowed and will be targeted, the air base it came from will also be targeted," Mesmari said. He added that no LNA troops were wounded in the air raids.

UN, world leaders call for de-escalation

Amid growing alarm, human rights groups and a chorus of international powers called for a cessation of all hostilities, warning that civilians could suffer possible abuses if the fighting escalated.

Such a flare-up also threatens to torpedo a UN-led national reconcilation conference scheduled for next weekend aiming to hammer out a plan for the elections.

190406075042211

The UN envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, who met Sarraj on Saturday, said he was determined that the conference scheduled for April 14-16 would be held on time.

In his televised address, Sarraj said that the reconciliation meeting offered the only way out of the country's political crisis, Abdelwahed said.

He added that said Sarraj had called on the international community to differentiate between "aggressors and those who are defending themselves, between those who want a military country and those who want civilian rule".

Haftar, who casts himself as a foe of "extremism" but is viewed by opponents as a new authoritarian leader in the mould of Gaddafi, has vowed to continue his offensive until Libya is "cleansed" of "terrorism".

Activisits accuse Haftar's forces of committing human rights violations, with Human Rights Watch saying in a statement on Saturday that LNA fighters "have a well-documented record of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, summary executions of captured fighters, and arbitrary detention".

But the right group's statement also noted that militias affiliated with the GNA and based in western Libya "also have a record of abuses against civilians".

The warning came after the G7 - a bloc comprised of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom - and the UN Security Council called on Friday in separate statements for all parties to the conflict in Libya to end military activities.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/gna-head-accuses-haftar-betrayal-vows-tripoli-push-190406195133847.html

2019-04-06 21:19:00Z
52780261149217

Netanyahu Vows to Start Annexing West Bank, in Bid to Rally the Right - The New York Times

JERUSALEM — Struggling to rally right-wing voters before Tuesday’s elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he would start to extend Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank if given a fourth consecutive term.

Such a move has been ardently sought by the settler movement but resisted until now by Mr. Netanyahu, and by more moderate Israelis, as a potentially fatal blow to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the eyes of most of the world, it would also be a violation of international law that bars the annexation of land seized in war.

But Mr. Netanyahu trailed his main challenger, Benny Gantz, a former army chief of staff, in final polls of the campaign published Friday. And he has been frantically trying to mobilize conservative Israelis to vote for his Likud party rather than for other, more extremist parties whose leaders have joined his government but have often portrayed him as more of a brake on the settler movement than an accelerator.

Mr. Netanyahu was pressed in a live television interview Saturday night over why he had not already annexed settlement blocs like Maale Adumim and Gush Etzion, two large Jewish communities built on occupied Palestinian territory on the outskirts of Jerusalem. He vowed to begin the effective annexation of those and other, more isolated areas under Jewish control.

“The question you’re asking is an interesting one: Will we move on now to the next stage?” he said. “And the answer is, yes. We will move on to the next stage.”

Asked by his interviewer if that meant he would annex the settlement blocs, Mr. Netanyahu said yes, but that he would not stop there.

“I’m going to apply sovereignty, but I don’t distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlement points, because from my perspective every such point of settlement is Israeli,” he said. “We have a responsibility as the Israeli government. I won’t uproot anyone and I won’t place them under Palestinian sovereignty. I’ll look out for everyone.”

The West Bank is home to about 2.8 million Palestinians and more than 400,000 Jewish settlers.

Mr. Netanyahu did not say whether he would seek to annex areas now under Palestinian control under the Oslo Accords.

Applying sovereignty to Israeli settlements on West Bank land that the Palestinians demand for a future state, presumably along with the roads and infrastructure tethering those places to the rest of Israel, would leave the Palestinians at best with an archipelago of disconnected territory. The West Bank is now under Israeli military jurisdiction, though settlers are subject to civilian law, as Israeli citizens.

Image

A Palestinian family tending their vineyard in the West Bank with the the Israeli settlement of Efrat in the background. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he will begin extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank if re-elected.CreditTomas Munita for The New York Times

The chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, Saeb Erekat, responded to Mr. Netanyahu’s statements by attacking both him and the Trump administration. The White House has long promised a proposal for a “deal of the century” to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But in the meantime, it has showered Mr. Netanyahu with priceless political gifts — from last year’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital to last month’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights — while battering the Palestinians with aid cuts and public scoldings.

“Such a statement by Netanyahu is not surprising,” Mr. Erekat said on Twitter. “Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump administration’s support and endorsement of Israel’s violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine.”

He added: “We’ll continue to pursue our rights through international forums, including the international criminal court, until we achieve our long overdue justice.”

Shalom Lipner, a former aide to Mr. Netanyahu and several other prime ministers, said Mr. Netanyahu might well believe the Trump administration could allow him to proceed with annexation. But he called the promise “the ultimate Hail Mary pass,” and one that came with little political risk.

“The only reason it’s even credible now is because of what he’s been able to coordinate with Trump,” said Mr. Lipner, an analyst at the Atlantic Council. “Maybe he can actually get Trump to sign off on that as well. But if it became clear it’s not in the cards right now, then he can just say, ‘Sorry, I can’t swing it. Conditions change.’”

In the television interview, Mr. Netanyahu vowed not to divide Jerusalem or “uproot any settlement,” and said he would “ensure that we will control the territory west of the Jordan River,” meaning the entire West Bank.

When asked if he would push through before Tuesday the much-delayed evacuation of Palestinians living in Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin village near the Maale Adumim settlement bloc, he reiterated his opposition to a Palestinian state on the West Bank.

“I don’t know whether it will be before the elections,” he said of the Khan al-Ahmar expulsion, which set off intense international criticism after being marked for demolition to make way for an expanded Jewish settlement.

But, he added: “We have to control our destiny, and that is going to be impossible if we place there an independent, Arab entity — an Arab state, for all intents and purposes. A Palestinian state. That will endanger our existence.”

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/world/middleeast/netanyahu-annex-west-bank.html

2019-04-06 21:16:17Z
52780261626840

Mummified Mice And Falcons Found In Newly Unveiled Egyptian Tomb - NPR

Enlarge this image

An archeologist holds an ancient mummified bird that was found in a burial site unveiled on Friday. Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters hide caption

toggle caption

Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters

The recent discovery of mummified cats in a well-preserved tomb probably shouldn't be surprising. It's a long-established fact that ancient Egyptians loved cats.

What's perhaps more remarkable, however, is the fact that a tomb unveiled on Friday contained a sort of mummified menagerie of 50 animals — and there were mummified mice and falcons in addition to the cats.

Enlarge this image

The Tomb of Tutu in Sohag contained mummified mice and falcons. Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters hide caption

toggle caption

Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters

The tomb is colorfully painted and well-preserved — and Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, called it "one of the most exciting discoveries ever in the area."

Waziri told Reuters the tomb contains a lobby and a burial room with two stone coffins. It is said to have been built for a man named Tutu and his wife. The area outside the burial chamber also contained mummies of a woman and a boy between 12 and 14 years old.

Enlarge this image

The newly discovered site also contains well-preserved wall paintings. On the walls of the tomb are depicted funeral processions; images of the owner, Tutu; and his family genealogy. Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters hide caption

toggle caption

Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters

This animal-filled tomb is part of a series of recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt. According to Reuters, the tomb was one of seven burial sites found near the Egyptian town of Sohag last October. Smugglers had been illegally digging for artifacts in the area.

Another tomb was unveiled in Saqqara, outside of Cairo, in December. Dozens of cat mummies and 100 cat statues were also found in Saqqara in November. February 2018 saw the unveiling of another 4,400-year-old tomb.

As NPR's Laurel Wamsley reported, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities sees the announcement of new discoveries as a way to attract tourists.

Tourism in Egypt slowed for years after the 2011 revolution. In December, The Associated Press reported that the industry has yet to recover, even though visits are gradually increasing. A new Grand Egyptian Museum, a project costing more than $1 billion and financed largely by Japan, is set to open in 2020.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/06/710634646/mummified-mice-and-falcons-found-in-newly-unveiled-egyptian-tomb

2019-04-06 19:20:00Z
52780261588177

Israel's Netanyahu says he plans to annex settlements in West Bank - Reuters

FILE PHOTO: A general view picture shows houses in the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, in the occupied West Bank February 15, 2017. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday he would annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office in a vote on Tuesday, a late pre-election promise that would enrage Palestinians and the Arab world.

In an interview to Israeli Channel 12 News, Netanyahu was asked why he hadn’t extended Israeli sovereignty to large West Bank settlements, as it has done in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, other territory seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

“Who says that we won’t do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it,” Netanyahu said. “You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don’t distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements.”

Palestinian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Palestinians want to establish a state in the occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Some 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas that are also home to more than 2.6 million Palestinians. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

Some of the parties Netanyahu said he would seek to include in a coalition government if he wins the election advocate annexing parts of the West Bank. Netanyahu is competing with those parties for pro-settler voters in the April 9 election. His comments are likely to appeal to such voters, who object to ceding lands to the Palestinians.

Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014.

Most countries consider settlements that Israel has built in territory captured in the 1967 war to be illegal. Israel disputes this citing historical ties, and says the future of the land should be determined in peace talks with the Palestinians.

The United States broke with decades of international consensus last month by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured from Syria.

Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Peter Graff

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-settlements/israels-netanyahu-says-he-plans-to-annex-settlements-in-west-bank-idUSKCN1RI0JY

2019-04-06 17:53:00Z
52780262534767

U.N. Urges An End To Fighting In Libya As Opposition Army Heads Toward Tripoli - NPR

Enlarge this image

Gen. Khalifa Hafter is Libya's former top army chief. He now leads the Libyan National Army, which is advancing toward the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli. Mohammed El-Sheikhy/AP hide caption

toggle caption

Mohammed El-Sheikhy/AP

International concern is mounting over the situation in Libya. The Libyan National Army, led by Khalifa Haftar, says it has now advanced into the southern outskirts of the capital Tripoli, where the U.N.-backed government is located.

G7 foreign ministers have urged an end to the fighting. "We urge all involved parties to immediately halt all military activity and movements toward Tripoli," the body, which is composed of the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S. wrote in a statement.

The U.N. Security Council, which met behind closed doors on Friday, has also called on Libyan National Army forces to cease their advances.

The fear, according to The Associated Press, is that the Libyan National Army's advances toward the capitol could lead to "a major showdown with rival militias." Both the Libyan National Army and the U.N.-backed government have various militias supporting them.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres left Libya on Friday. He met with Gen. Haftar and then told journalists he was leaving Libya "with a deep concern and a heavy heart." Guterres has insisted that Libya needs a political solution, not a military one, and said the U.N. is available to facilitate a peace process.

Libya has been extremely unstable since NATO-backed forces deposed its former dictator Moammar Ghadafi in 2011.

In a 2016 interview with Fox News, former President Barack Obama called his handling of the aftermath of that revolution the worst mistake of his presidency. Obama has said the U.S. should have done more to fill the vacuum left by Ghadafi.

By 2014, Libya had devolved into a civil war, and ISIS had become increasingly influential there. According to Reuters, the U.S. provided air support to Libyan forces fighting ISIS in 2016 and continued to launch strikes on suspected militants there after the end of that campaign.

A study conducted by the New America Foundation found that at least 2,158 airstrikes and drone strikes were conducted by foreign and domestic powers in Libya between September 2012 and June 2018. According to the study's estimates, between 242 and 395 civilians were killed in the strikes, and between 324 and 524 were wounded.

New America found that the Libyan National Army, led by Haftar, conducted 1,112 of those airstrikes. The United States conducted 524 of them.

In addition to political and military chaos in Libya, there have also been reports of gross human rights violations there. Last year, the United Nations human rights office found that the country contained "open slave markets" where migrants were bought and sold. According to Reuters, various armed groups control many of the country's ports and beaches.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/06/710619355/u-n-urges-an-end-to-fighting-in-libya-as-opposition-army-heads-toward-tripoli

2019-04-06 17:31:00Z
52780261149217

Libya crisis: Fighting flares on outskirts of Tripoli - BBC News

Fresh fighting has flared near the Libyan capital, Tripoli, between pro-government forces and rebel fighters from the east of the country.

Reports say clashes between Gen Khalifa Haftar's rebels and pro-government groups are taking place in three suburbs to the south of the city.

Tripoli is the base of the UN-backed, internationally recognised government.

The UN's Libya envoy has insisted that a planned conference on possible new elections will still go ahead.

• Why is Libya so lawless?
• Who is military strongman Khalifa Haftar?

UN troops in the capital have been placed on high alert.

Libya has been torn by violence and political instability since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011.

What's happening on the ground?

General Haftar - who was appointed chief of the Libyan National Army (LNA) under an earlier UN-backed administration - ordered his forces to advance on Tripoli on Thursday, as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was in the city to discuss the ongoing crisis.

The Libyan air force, which is nominally under government control, targeted an area 50km (30 miles) south of the capital on Saturday morning.

It is unclear if there were casualties but the LNA has vowed to retaliate.

Fighting has taken place in several areas, including near the disused international airport south of Tripoli.

Gen Haftar spoke to Mr Guterres in Benghazi on Friday, and reportedly told him that his operation would not stop until his troops had defeated "terrorism".

Tripoli residents have begun stocking up on food and fuel, AFP reported.

LNA troops seized the south of Libya and its oil fields earlier this year.

What's been the reaction?

The G7 group of major industrial nations has urged all parties "to immediately halt all military activity". The UN Security council has issued a similar call.

Russia has also called on parties in the escalating conflict to find an agreement.

Speaking in Egypt, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov also warned against what he called foreign meddling in Libya.

Russia and Egypt have provided support to Gen Haftar.

UN envoy Ghassan Salame said on Saturday that the conference planned for 14-16 April would still be held in time, despite the escalation - "unless compelling circumstances force us not to".

Hope dashed for a political resolution?

By Sebastian Usher, BBC Arab affairs editor

It's still unclear how much this is a show of force to bolster Gen Haftar's position or a genuine effort to seize Tripoli.

• Libya country profile

He returned during the revolution and he's subsequently become the most powerful military leader in a country rife with militias, allied to a rival government in the east.

Despite the chorus of international concern over his actions, he has had support from powerful outside players, including the UAE and Egypt.

Efforts towards a political resolution for Libya have foundered time after time. The most recent hopes may once again have been dashed.

Who is Khalifa Haftar?

Born in 1943, the former army officer helped Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seize power in 1969 before falling out with him and going into exile in the US. He returned in 2011 after the uprising against Gaddafi began and became a rebel commander.

In December Haftar met Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj from the UN-backed government at a conference but refused to attend official talks.

He visited Saudi Arabia last week, where he met King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks.

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47840031

2019-04-06 16:02:53Z
52780261149217

Libya: Air raids target Haftar's advancing forces near Tripoli - Aljazeera.com

Fighter jets for Libya's UN-backed government in Tripoli have targeted forces under the command of renegade General Khalifa Haftar, in a bid to halt his military assault on the capital that threatens to further destabilise the country. 

As clashes continued on the outskirts of Tripoli on Saturday, human rights groups warned of civilians suffering possible abuses if the fighting escalated, joining a chorus of international powers calling for a cessation of all hostilities.

Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) said in a statement on Saturday it was carrying out an operation to secure Tripoli's former international airport, which sits some 30km south of the city, and would later use it as a launching point for missions aimed at seizing key sites within the capital.

The statement came two days after Haftar ordered the eastern forces to march on Tripoli, which is controlled by the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) and protected by an array of militias.

The LNA is allied to a parallel administration based in the east of the oil-rich North African country.

'Sporadic fighting' 

Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said there were conflicting reports regarding the LNA's possible capture of the former airport, with the GNA claiming they had recaptured the site.

Abdelwahed said the site and a clutch of other nearby neighbourhoods were "witnessing military deployments and sporadic fighting", accounting for one of four "major confrontation" zones.

"These areas are on the southern outskirts of Tripoli, near the western gate of Tripoli … and two major frontlines in the west of Libya," Abdelwahed said, adding clashes could erupt in each of the locations "at any time".

The LNA's move on Tripoli has escalated a power struggle that has splintered Libya into a patchwork of competing power bases since the overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

In response to Haftar's drive, the GNA has authorised air attacks against "any military activities by [LNA] forces trying to enter the capital", Abdelwahed said.

Pro-GNA forces have amassed in Tripoli in a bid to push-back the LNA offensive, with military units and detachments arriving from cities such Misrata and Zawiya, he added.

As fresh fighting flared south of Tripoli, LNA forces said they had been targeted by an air raid.

"We strongly condemn the air raid ... in the al-Aziziya region" by a jet, which had taken off from western Misrata, said the media office of the eastern forces.

UN pushes for reconciliation conference

Amid the escalating tension, an array of international leaders and organisations have called for all parties to put an end to the ongoing conflict and instead focus their efforts on establishing a roadmap towards elections to resolve Libya's prolonged instability.

On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "deeply concerned" over the possibility of "bloody confrontation in and around Tripoli".

"The UN is committed to facilitating a political solution and, whatever happens, the UN is committed to supporting the Libyan people," Guterres said.

Guterres's comments came as he wrapped up a visit to Libya, aimed at helping organise a national reconciliation conference planned for later this month.

UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame, who is set to meet on Saturday in Tripoli GNA head Fayez al-Sarraj, said he was determined that the conference scheduled for April 14-16 would be held on time.

World leaders call for de-escalation

In a statement on Saturday, Human Rights Watch warned that civilians could be caught in the middle of fighting.

"Armed groups loyal to both sides have a record of abusing civilians," the rights group said, adding that LNA fighters "have a well-documented record of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, summary executions of captured fighters, and arbitrary detention".

It statement noted that militias affiliated with the GNA and based in western Libya "also have a record of abuses against civilians".

Amid growing international alarm, the Group of Seven (G7) - a bloc comprised of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan the United Kingdom and the United States - issued a statement on Friday saying there was "no military solution to the Libyan conflict".

"We strongly oppose any military action in Libya. Any Libyan actor or faction that precipitates further civil conflict are harming innocent people and standing in the way of the peace that Libyans deserve," it added.

Meanwhile, after a closed-door emergency meeting in New York, the UN Security Council called on Haftar's forces to halt their advance and warned that those responsible for re-igniting conflict would be held responsible.

The appeal was unanimously backed by the council, including Russia, which has previously supported the 75-year-old.

The council "called on LNA forces to halt all military movements" and "on all forces to de-escalate military activity", said German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen, who holds the council's presidency.

Haftar, who casts himself as a foe of extremism but is viewed by opponents as a new authoritarian leader in the mould of Gaddafi, has vowed to continue his offensive until Libya is "cleansed" of "terrorism".

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/libya-air-raids-target-haftar-advancing-forces-tripoli-190406120715862.html

2019-04-06 15:31:00Z
52780261149217