#khalifahaftar

Libya’s warring sides begin prisoner exchange | Human Rights News

First UN-brokered prisoner exchange comes as part of ceasefire deal inked two months ago in Geneva.

Libya’s rivals have kicked off a UN-brokered prisoner exchange, which was part of a ceasefire agreement they inked more than two months ago in Geneva, the United Nations and Libyan officials have said.

The exchange of a first batch of prisoners, supervised by a joint military committee, took place on Friday in the southwestern village of al-Shwayrif, according to the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).

In October, the two sides signed a nationwide, UN-brokered ceasefire deal that included an exchange of all war prisoners.

UNSMIL announced the prisoner exchange without giving details on how many prisoners were freed by each side.

It called for both sides to speed up the implementation of the ceasefire deal, including the exchange of all prisoners.

1/2 UNSMIL welcomes the remarkable success registered today by the exchange of prisoners from both sides under the supervision of the Joint Military Commission (5+5), and thanks to the good offices of the tribal sheikhs and elders. pic.twitter.com/AiVEWyVONG

— UNSMIL (@UNSMILibya) December 25, 2020

Libya is split between its UN-recognised government in the capital, Tripoli, and rival authorities based in the east.

The two sides are backed by an array of local armed groups as well as regional and foreign powers.

The oil-rich country was plunged into chaos after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In April 2019, eastern-based renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar and his forces launched an offensive to try and capture Tripoli, a campaign that stalled after months of fighting and eventually collapsed in June.

Haftar’s forces have since withdrawn to the coastal city of Sirte.

Turkish visit

Fathi Bashagha, interior minister of the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), hailed the exchange in a tweet, attaching photos of released prisoners.

The Tripoli Protection Unit, an armed group allied with the capital-based government, also posted a 31-second video, apparently showing the prisoner exchange, with an official reading the names of those released.

The prisoner exchange comes as Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar travelled to Libya, flanked by top military officers to inspect Turkish units in the war-torn country, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported.

The unscheduled visit comes after Haftar called on his fighters to “drive out” Turkish forces backing the GNA.

Turkish support for the GNA in Tripoli is what helped stave off the Tripoli offensive launched by Haftar with Russian, Egyptian and UAE backing in April last year.

This week, the Turkish parliament adopted a motion extending the deployment of soldiers in Libya by 18 months.

Dr. Walid Phares (June 2020): Analysis of the Geopolitics of the Libya Conflict

Dr. Walid Phares, who served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump and Mitt Romney and is Fox News national security expert, will assess US policy towards the Greater Middle East from Afghanistan to Libya, with insights into major crises in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Gulf and Turkey. Dr. Phares is an engaging and highly sought after Middle East expert and pacesetter, often predicting trends and situations on the ground years before they occur. He is a Fox News Expert, advisor to the US Congress and the European Parliament and served as a senior advisor on national security foreign policy to presidential candidate Mitt Romney 2012. Dr Phares is the only expert/author who predicted the Arab Spring a year before it occurred in his pacesetting book, The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East (Threshold, a division of Simon and Shuster 2010). Dr Phares holds an extensive CV and noteworthy achievements in the fields of academia, government strategies, media and publishing critical advice on combatting terrorism and countering jihadi radicalization both stateside and abroad. Dr Phares holds a Ph.D in international relations and strategic studies from the University of Miami, and a Political Science Degree from St Joseph University and a Law degree from the Lebanese University in Beirut and a Master in International Law from Universite Jean Moulin in Lyons, France.