The US President Donald Trump has made up his mind to stay out of the Libyan file and not directly intervene to find a solution to the escalating crisis there. This information has been brought by a report made by the CNN News Agency. According to the report, Trump is particularly concerned by the possible confrontation that is looming between Egypt and Turkey over Libya, and therefore does not want to get involved.
Many foreign and US officials told CNN that the recent pleas by the leaders of Turkey, Egypt and others for Trump to get involved in the conflict have fallen on deaf ears.
The White House had taken an active interest in the conflict in 2019, but in recent months, the US President’s stance has changed, with Trump telling those leaders that he’d rather not get involved in another messy Middle Eastern conflict.
In particular, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt have worked to convince Trump to get involved diplomatically in the current crisis in Libya.
According to CNN, some Turkish and US sources revealed that Erdogan’s frequent contacts with Trump were meant to prompt Russia to give up its support for the commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, in the latter’s battle against the Government of National Accord backed by Ankara.
Turkey, Italy and Qatar, meanwhile, are collectively trying to prop up Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord. In recent weeks, the likelihood of a full-blown conflict breaking out increased after Egypt’s parliament green lighted the deployment of troops to Libya in support of Haftar’s rebel forces.
Trump has told regional leaders that he would rather avoid being involved ahead of the presidential election with so many other domestic issues weighing him down and urged them to sort the issue out amongst themselves, the US and Turkish sources said.
The State Department has participated in some talks regarding Libya’s future, as the conflict rages on. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took part this year in a Libya summit hosted in Berlin, where countries including France, Russia and Turkey laid out a cease-fire plan, which ultimately failed, and called for an end to violence despite their own stealthy support to the warring factions.