Chief of the Russian Armed Forces arrives in Tobruk to meet Khalifa Haftar

Khalifa Haftar visited Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier (Sputnik/ Sergey Eshenko)

The chief of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, has reportedly arrived in Tobruk in a bid to meet the leader of the Operation Dignity forces in eastern Libya, Khalifa Haftar.

No more details were reported, but according to local Libyan news operators, the meeting is part of discussions between the two parties for the possibility of Russian assistance to Haftar’s forces in their alleged war on terrorism.

Haftar visited Moscow twice last year and the Speaker of the HoR, Agilah Saleh also visited Russia last year. Both requested a more integrated role for Moscow in Libya’s conflict and asked the Kremlin to help lift the UN embargo on weapons sent to Libya.

 An official at the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority confirmed on Tuesday that the Russian Navy had warned the Libyan airplanes of flying over the (Point.33) area above Sirte city in the Libyan territorial waters. The official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Libyan Press Solidarity that the Russian warnings were given by the Russian naval forces saying they are doing military sea drills in the Libyan waters from 6.am till 5.pm every day from January 08 to January 11.

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