Al-Serraj discussed US Libya policy with top US officials

Libya’s Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj meets, April 5, 2017, in Stuttgart, Germany with top U.S. officials, in hopes of finding a way forward for what one analyst is calling “the Obama administration’s Iraq.”

The head of the U.N.-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) has met in Stuttgart, Germany with top U.S. officials, in hopes of finding a way forward for what one analyst is calling “the Obama administration’s Iraq.”

Chuck Prichard, a spokesman for U.S. Africa Command, told VOA that GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj sat down Wednesday with U.S. General Thomas D. Waldhauser, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. Ambassador to Libya Peter Bodde at the U.S. Africa Command headquarters.

“The point was to catch up on how things are going in Libya and to brief about how civilian rule and military organizations work together,” Prichard said. It was Sarraj’s second visit to U.S. Africa Command headquarters.

The visit comes as Russian military officials have deployed to an airbase western Egypt, in what U.S. officials say appears to be a bid to support Khalifa Haftar, the military commander of Libya’s rival eastern government.

U.S. officials told Reuters news organization last month that the United States had observed what appeared to be Russian special operations forces and drones at Sidi Barrani, about 100 kilometers from Egypt’s border with Libya.

When asked whether the U.S. Africa Command supported collaboration between the GNA and Khalifa Haftar, Prichard said the command was “not really advocating a position one way or the other.”

“We’re just trying to facilitate stability so that the Libyan people can sort out their government,” he said.

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