Le Monde Newspaper: Marshal Hafter’s Military Onslaught On Tripoli Is A “Catastrophic Failure” For France!

The French daily “Le Monde” said that the military onslaught waged by Marshal Khalifa Hafter’s forces on Tripoli is a “failure” for Paris, pointing to France’s embarrassing position on this newly-unfolding Libyan crisis.

“The ongoing offensive launched by the forces of Marshal Khalifa Hafter, Commander of Libya’s national Army, is a painful blow to the political path led by UN Special Envoy to Libya Ghassan Salameh,” the French daily said on Monday. It is also a “gross failure” for the French Quai D’Orsai, thus virtually scuttling a long-awaited solution to the vexed Libyan crisis.

France had organized a conference in May in which Libyan officials were gathered under the auspices of the United Nations, which wanted to make this meeting a new step in the path of dialogue in order to end the Libyan crisis. At the end of the get-together Libyan officials committed themselves to organizing legislative and presidential elections by early December 2018, but this has remained remained a dead letter.

In July 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron organized a meeting in Paris between the two rivals, namely the President of the presidential council of the National Reconciliation Government, Fayez Al Sarraj, and Marshal Khalifa Hafter.

“In fact, thanks to the French authorities, the strong man has managed to impose himself as a key player in the Libyan crisis,” Le Monde wrote, noting that the Libyan media supporting the government of Fayez al-Sarraj had “harassed the latter, which he saw as French support for Marshall Hafter.”

“Paris rejects these allegations and supports UN mediation in Libya, as did Emmanuel Macron on April 6th when he spoke with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres immediately upon the latter’s return from Tripoli,” the newspaper said.

The newspaper added, “Jean Yves Le Drian, who knows the Libyan file accurately, has never deviated from this line, saying that Hafter was a “field fact “making it inevitable actor in the field, which enabled the persuasion of the French Head of State, who initiated the 2017 conference on Libya, to stage a mediation on the Libyan file when he organized the first relevant conciliatory meeting in Saint-Cloud (Evelines department) between Marshal Hafter and Al Sarraj in the framework of fostering national reconciliation in Libya,” according to Le Monde.

The French newspaper went on to say: “While serving as defense minister to former President Francois Hollande, Le Drian called for cooperation with Marshall Hafter, a move then supported by Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates supposedly to combat the terrorism scourge,” noting that this was being carried out “through the secret backing of the French intelligence services active in the region”.