.jpg)
1 hour ago
3
Article content
The industry’s optimism can’t be separated from Libya’s political realities.
Article content
The military drill unfolded in Sirte, the coastal city where Qaddafi was killed in 2011. Later an Islamic State stronghold and civil war front line, it now sits between the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and forces aligned with Haftar in the east.
Article content
Behind the troops, dignitaries included Saddam Haftar, son of the eastern commander, and Libya’s deputy defense minister, Abdul Salam Al-Zoubi — a reminder of the divide the exercise was meant to bridge.
Article content
Relations have improved: a US defense official said the camps share counter-terrorism intelligence, helping weaken Islamic State and al Qaeda networks, and a joint operations command near the site where the drills were held. The exercises followed another milestone: rival authorities approved a single national budget in April for the first time in more than a decade.
Article content
The signs of cooperation have done little to convince some Libyans that the country’s armed factions are moving toward real unity.
Article content
“Whatever the goal of the Sirte maneuvers, it will not lead to the unification of the military nationwide,” said Suleiman, 52, who works in banking in Tripoli and asked not to be identified by his full name discussing politics. Ahmed, a schoolteacher in Benghazi, said armed groups in Tripoli would resist any unification that “threatened to end their existence.”
Article content
Article content
The US unity push has already met resistance. Boulos’s plan to merge the rival authorities without elections, dividing top jobs between camps, was rejected April 6 by Libya’s High Council of State as outside the existing process and lacking authority.
Article content
Foreign involvement also complicates talks: Turkey previously backed Tripoli, while Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia supported Haftar. On the sidelines of the drill, UK Ambassador to Libya Martin Reynolds cited concern about Russia’s presence and said Libya needs a government that “does not see the need to bring in foreign powers.”
Article content
A more basic problem is that the two sides may not want to reunite. In the east, Haftar has imposed an authoritarian but more orderly system after years of chaos, while militias and officials from rival governments benefit from the current arrangement.
Article content
“There’s a lack of trust between the sides and they’ve seen more utility from maintaining the status quo than putting that at risk with a big political deal,” said Tim Eaton, a senior research fellow in the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House.
Article content
Article content
The east-west divide is only part of the problem. Across Libya, armed groups are embedded in the state and control access to fields, pipelines and terminals, allowing factions to use oil as leverage in political fights. Even the National Oil Corp., the key state partner for major oil deals, struggles to assert control; in the east, its subsidiaries have become dominated by the Haftar family, Eaton said.
Article content
That lack of control has repeatedly disrupted production. Less than three years ago, output fell below 700,000 barrels a day after shutdowns including at El Feel. In early 2025, the Oil Crescent Region Movement threatened to block a third of exports unless the National Oil Corp. shifted company headquarters to the east.
Article content
Emadeddin Badi, a senior fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said Libya’s rival power centers can take part in US-backed exercises without accepting reforms that would threaten their control.
Article content
“So far it’s glitter, handshakes and exercises with no real substance behind them,” he said. “Their willingness to participate shouldn’t be understood as political will to restructure things or introduce reforms.”
Article content
—With assistance from Kevin Crowley.
Article content
English (US)