Libya’s Interior Minister says UAE’s support for Haftar “major cause of the conflict”

Bashagha said on Twitter on Wednesday that the crisis in Libya would not have happened had the UAE stopped its malicious interference in Libya’s internal affairs.

“your support to putschists, dispatch of weapon and your incitement to violence through your deceptive media have fueled the conflict.” Bashagha said on Twitter, responding to tweets by the UAE’s State Minister of Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, who accused Libya’s warring parties of seeking to make tactical gains.

The Libyan GNA Interior Minister also accused the UAE of breaching the UN arms embargo by sending weapons to Khalifa Haftar, saying they had used their deceptive media, corrupt money to continuously violate UN resolutions that ban arms exports to Libya, adding that the UAE was doing all that to establish another dictatorship in the region.

On Monday, the Libyan GNA forces recaptured Al-Watiya airbase, which was taken by Haftar’s forces six years ago.The control of the airbase came after destroying three Russian-made Pantsir air defense systems used by Haftar’s forces that were also supplied by the UAE.