Intel: Trump, MBZ talk ridding Libya of proxy fighters

During a phone call Tuesday, the US president and Abu Dhabi’s crown prince discussed diffusing the Libyan crisis as a new battle looms in the strategic city of Sirte. 

Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who is the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and US President Donald Trump “discussed a range of regional security issues including the importance of de-escalation in Libya through the removal of foreign forces,” the White House said in a readout of the call.

The UAE is one of the many foreign powers drawn into Libya’s six-year war, offering its support to the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter. The renegade commander, who also counts Egypt and Russia among his sponsors, is fighting the Turkey-backed internationally recognized government. 

The UAE views Hifter as a stopgap against the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist movements in the region, and according to the United Nations has routinely supplied him with military hardware in violation of an international arms embargo.