AMMAN: Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar is in Jordan for crucial reconciliation talks with Libya’s Fayez Sarraj, head of the Presidential Council, Arab News has learned.
Senior government sources told Arab News that Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the head of the Libyan National Army, is in Jordan without giving reasons for the visit. Pundits believe it aims to speed up reconciliation talks with Sarraj.
Earlier, a Jordanian website announced that Sarraj will be visiting Jordan Saturday as the head of a large contingency that includes the head of the intelligence service, and the ministers of higher education, heath and foreign affairs. Mohammed Barghathi, the Libyan ambassador to Jordan, posted on Wednesday on his Facebook account a photo of himself taken with with Haftar.
“Meeting with Field Marshal Khalifa Bilqasim Haftar the commander-in-chief of the Libyan Army,” the ambassador said in the post. The meeting included “discussions about the homeland and the building of the state and commitment to holding elections and respecting the peaceful transfer of power.”
Barghathi called such future actions “the basis to build the hope for national state.”
It is unclear what the added value of Jordan is for the Libyans. Adnan Abu Odeh, a former adviser to King Hussein and King Abdullah, told Arab News that he was surprised by the news.
“I am not sure why Jordan was chosen for the reconciliation meetings. We are not neighbors and we don’t have loads of money, but maybe a third party suggested to hold the meeting in Jordan as a neutral setting,” he told Arab News.
