The Libyan National Army denied on Monday that the LNA commander Marshal Khalifa Haftar ordered establishment of a Russian military base in regions under his control east of Libya.
LNA’s spokesperson Colonel Ahmed al-Mesmari considered that there is a misleading in the statements quoting head of the Russian contact group Lev Dengov, regarding this matter.
During the past two years, Haftar carried out several announced and hidden visits to Moscow to cement military cooperation between the two parties. However, Russia rejected his request to rearm the army that is suffering an embargo on importing weapons – this embargo was imposed by the Security Council, approximately, seven years ago.
There are tight ties between Haftar and Russian authorities in which observers considered that his visit to Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is an indicator of Moscow’s support to the Libyan army in its war against terrorism.
Haftar convened on Sunday with a number of officers and military chiefs, and they discussed the state of the Libyan Special Forces.
In the meeting, which is the first of its kind since investigations with Mahmoud al-Werfalli, there has been emphasis not to allow anyone to defame the special forces image.
Haftar noted that he wants the special forces to perform its tasks, especially that the enemy is still ambuscading the country through sleeping cells.
In another matter, Mesmari criticized the role of UN Special Representative for Libya Ghassan Salameh, saying that “it is not a security role, but only political one,” and the national army is in charge of securing the country. Salameh mission is represented in putting the Libyan parties on a dialogue table in order to reach a political agreement, he added.
Mesmari accused the Government of National Accord (GNA) of supporting “specific militias”.
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