Shadowy Points In Lamamra’s “Withdrawal” From Libya Mission!

The fighting axes on the outskirts of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, are witnessing an unprecedented collapse of the militia of retired general Khalifa Haftar, a development that came after a diplomatic row at the level of the United Nations, which ended the project to appoint the former Algerian foreign minister, Ramtane Lamamra, as a special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Libya, as the latter finally decided to withdraw and forsake the mission.

The Haftar militia lost all the points it controlled on the western coast of Libya until the Tunisian border in favor of the forces of the internationally-recognized national reconciliation government led by Fayez al-Serraj, while the defeats continued, the last of which was the entry of the reconciliation forces into the city of Tarhuna, regarded as the stronghold of the retired general’s forces in the Libyan West from which they used to launch attacks on the capital Tripoli.

The United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Morocco had protested the assignment of former foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra to be as mediator in Libya, and incited US President Donald Trump to cut the road on Lamamara, and thereby Washington decided to veto the project right before Lamamra announced his withdrawal after being certain of the impossibility of securing the approval of the UN Security Council, in light of Washington’s clear refusal to endorse his nomination.

The justification leaked by the various diplomatic sources regarding the rejection of Lamamra was the fear of the countries supporting Haftar that Lamamra would adopt the Algerian position on the Libyan crisis, which, as is known, based on rejecting the military offensive on the capital Tripoli and advocating a peaceful solution, as well as pushing for the recognition of the internationally recognized Libyan government without any restriction or condition, even if Algeria met in Benghazi through some of its officials, headed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sabri Boukadoum, with the symbols of Libya’s eastern side and its government that is not recognized internationally.

The recent victories of the national reconciliation government led by Al- Serraj have clear reasons, which is qualitative Turkish support, by virtue of the agreement concluded between Tripoli and Ankara in recent months, but other matters that may be related to this, which is the Algerian anger at the countries that support Haftar and who objected to the proposed appointment of Lamamra to replace resigning former envoy Ghassan Salame, and this point cannot be ignored.

There is no evidence of coordination between Algeria and the internationally recognized government in Tripoli in the ongoing war in the Libyan West, but what exists is that the Algerian side may have been agitated by the “stabbing” on the part of Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, in a case of Lamamra, which may lead to the belief that Algeria may change its position regarding what is going on in Libya, if not already.

Some political observers talk about the existence of an Algerian-Turkish rapprochement, which has been evident since the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Algeria in January, and this rapprochement may have been strengthened after the “stab attack” that Algeria was subjected to following the incident of dropping the name of Ramtane Lamamra by countries considered brothers and friends like Egypt and the United Arab Emirates

Algeria, consequently, became much closer to the Turkish position, especially since Algeria and Ankara are considered allies of the Libyan reconciliation government in varying proportions.