Chief of LNA Land Forces Saddam Haftar was welcomed in Washington D.C. this week as the US continues its efforts to entice the family away from Moscow. On 28 April, Senior Bureau Official at the US State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Tim Lenderking, US Senior Advisor for Africa and President Trump’s Senior Advisor on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs Massad Boulos, and US Special Envoy Richard Norland hosted at the State Department a delegation led by Saddam Haftar, officially in the role of ‘envoy’ of his father Khalifa Haftar. According to the State Department, they agreed that ‘a secure, united, and prosperous Libya, with strong technocratic institutions including the National Oil Corporation and Central Bank of Libya, will be better able to do business with the United States and U.S. companies.’ The US said it will ‘continue to engage officials from western and eastern Libya and to support Libyan efforts to unify their military institutions as Libyans secure their sovereignty.’
Meanwhile, another son – Belqassim Haftar – was the guest of honour at the ‘Libyan-American Forum for Development and Reconstruction’ in Washington DC. On 28 – 29 April, the US-Libya Business Association (USLBA) hosted a forum with Belqassim Haftar, the Director of the Libyan Development and Reconstruction Fund (LDRF), as the keynote speaker alongside several other speakers and panellists. According to the Fund, Belqassim led a high-level Libyan delegation of businessmen, university presidents, and experts specialized in several fields and over 90 American companies and institutions participated. It said it held several bilateral meetings that concluded with the signing of many memoranda of understanding between the LDRF, the USLBA and other American companies. It stressed that the LDRF’s participation reflects ‘Libya’s commitment to being open to international partnerships and promoting development and construction efforts’.