French magazine ‘Politique Internationale’ awarded its ‘Political Courage Prize’ to the Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA), Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. This is for his decisive fight against terrorism, and extremism.
The Paris-based quarterly – which focuses on international relations, and has featured interviews with world leaders – hands out the prize to reward a “courageous action led by a known actor of the national, or international scene.”
Its Director, Patrick Wajsman, said that the LNA Commander has been fighting for years to maintain the stability, security, and unity of Libya.
“Whatever the outcome of current events, it is the cause that Haftar embodies that was rewarded,” he stated. Wajsman noted, “This choice is also dictated by the danger of a lasting Turkish influence, on the southern shore of the Mediterranean for Europe.”
Notably Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar Sadat was one of the most important laureates of the Political Courage Prize in 1982. It was posthumously accepted by his wife Jehan Sadat, after his assassination in the same year.
Other prominent international leaders who have received the prize, include: US President Ronald Reagan in 1988; Presidents of South Africa Frederik Willem de Klerk and Nelson Mandela in 1992, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President of the Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat in 1994, Czech President Václav Havel in 2002, King of Jordan Abdullah II in 2003, and Pope John Paul II in 2004.
In recent years, French President Nicolas Sarkozy won the prize in 2008, and last year, the prize was awarded to the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.