Donald Trump indicates support for ‘Field Marshal’ Khalifa Hifter, Libyan strongman leading attack on Tripoli’s UN-backed government
- Khalifa Hifter’s forces mounted an offensive on Tripoli almost three weeks ago against Libya’s internationally recognised government
- Trump appears to contradict public position taken by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
US President Donald Trump indicated in a phone call with Libyan strongman Khalifa Hifter last week that the US supported an assault on the country’s capital to depose its United Nations-backed government, according to American officials familiar with the matter.
An earlier call from White House National Security Adviser John Bolton also left Hifter with the impression of a US green light for an offensive on Tripoli by his forces, known as the Libyan National Army, according to three diplomats.
Those accounts go beyond a White House statement issued Friday on an April 15 call between Trump and Hifter.
The revelation that the US president had tacitly recognised Hifter – addressed as “Field Marshal” in the statement – as a Libyan leader abruptly undermined the country’s internationally-recognised government led by Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj.
Trump’s conversation with Hifter took place after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi met with the US president on April 9 and urged him to back Hifter, according to two people familiar with the matter.
