UAE sends weapons to Haftar through Israel

Monitoring Desk

DOHA: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sent weapon shipments to Libya’s putschist leader Khalifa Haftar through Israel, according to a new bombshell report by AlJazeera Arabic.

In the report, AlJazeera was able through satellite imagery to track down two cargo planes that landed in a military base that belongs to Haftar’s forces in Libya after making stops in Jordan, Egypt and Israel.

The timing of the shipment coincided with Haftar’s most recent assault against the capital Tripoli, which claimed many civilian lives and drew global outrage.

Two Ilyushin 76 cargo planes that belong to a company called Reem Travel, which is jointly owned by the UAE and Kazakhstan, made several trips to Libya in early April, according to the report.

AlJazeera ws able to document that the cargo planes in question were in fact carrying weapons and munitions to Haftar-controlled regions.

Early last month, Haftar launched a wide-ranging campaign to capture Tripoli, where Libya’s UN-recognized Government of National Accord is based.

After a month of sporadic fighting on the city’s outskirts, however, Haftar’s forces have so far failed to achieve their primary objective. Libya has remained beset by turmoil since 2011, when long-serving leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a bloody NATO-backed uprising after four decades in power.

Since then, the oil-rich country has seen the emergence of two rival seats of power: one in eastern Libya, with which Haftar is affiliated, and another in Tripoli, which enjoys UN recognition.