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LNA Denies Haftar Seeking to Allow Russia to Set up Military Base in Libya

LNA commander Khalifa Haftar is seen with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov during the former’s visit to Russia in September. (AFP)
LNA commander Khalifa Haftar is seen with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov during the former’s visit to Russia in September. (AFP)
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LNA Denies Haftar Seeking to Allow Russia to Set up Military Base in Libya

LNA commander Khalifa Haftar is seen with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov during the former’s visit to Russia in September. (AFP)
LNA commander Khalifa Haftar is seen with Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov during the former’s visit to Russia in September. (AFP)

An informed source in the Libyan National Army (LNA), commanded by Khalifa Haftar, denied to Asharq Al-Awsat that the military was planning on reaching an agreement with Russia to allow it to set up a military base in the country.

Bloomberg had reported that Russia was seeking to strike a defense agreement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Haftar when the latter visited Moscow in September.

It quoted sources as saying that Haftar "was looking for air-defense systems to protect him against rival forces in Tripoli, who have been backed by Türkiye's military."

"He also wants training for his air force pilots and special forces," they said. "In return, a handful of air bases currently occupied by Wagner paramilitaries will be upgraded to host Russian forces."

"Russian warships may also get permanent docking rights at a Libyan port, most likely Tobruk, located just a few hundred kilometers across the Mediterranean from Greece and Italy, according to other people with knowledge of the talks," reported Bloomberg.

A week before his talks with Putin, Haftar met with commander of US forces in Africa General Michael Langley and current US special envoy to Libya Richard Norland. They pressed him to remove foreign forces from Libya.

A military source close to Haftar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the army was "playing its role in protecting Libya from foreign occupation."

Speaking on condition of anonymity, it stressed that the military cooperation agreements with Russia don’t include granting it any facilitations to set up military bases.

"Such misleading reports are aimed at diverting attention from foreign military presence in the country," it added, referring to Turkish and American forces at the Mitiga base in Tripoli and in the al-Watiya base, as well as Italian and British forces at the Misrata air base.

Haftar did not comment on the reports during his meeting on Monday with a delegation of elders and tribal leaders at his headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi.

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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
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Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)

Israel is considering options to respond to repeated attacks fired from Yemen in the past few days, the latest of which was a Houthi missile strike that injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv.
But military experts say Israel should first consider an intelligence plan for confronting the new front after it faced significant difficulties in both defending against and responding to the Houthi attacks.
On Saturday morning, Houthis launched a missile that triggered sirens throughout central Israel at 3:44 am. It was the second attack since Thursday.
Israel's military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv's southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed.
“The incident is still being thoroughly investigated,” the army said, adding that following initial investigations by the Israeli Air Force and Home Front Command, “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, both regarding interception and early warning.”
Israeli military experts say the recent Houthi attacks have revealed serious security gaps in Israel's air defense systems.
“The pressing question now is why none of the other of Israel’s air defense layers managed to intercept the warhead,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth's Ron Ben-Yishai. “The likely explanation is the late detection and the flat trajectory, which prevented the operation of all available defense apparatus.”
He said these incidents might expose a critical vulnerability in the army’s air defense system protecting Israel’s civilian and military home front.
According to Ben-Yishai, two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure.
The first is that the missile was launched in a “flattened” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction.
As a result, Israeli defenses may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate.
He said the second, and more likely scenario is that Iran has developed a maneuverable warhead.
Such a warhead separates from the missile during the final third of its trajectory and maneuvers mid-flight—executing pre-programmed course changes—to hit its designated target, he wrote.
And while Israel has launched initial investigations into the failure of Israeli defense systems to intercept the missiles, it is now examining the nature, date and location of its response.
When Houthis launched their first missile attack on Israel last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them, saying, “The Houthis will learn the hard way.”
But Israeli political analyst Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Maariv newspaper that Israel should look at reality with open eyes and say out loud that it cannot deal with the Houthi threat from Yemen, and has failed to face them.
Last Thursday, 14 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi “military targets” along Yemen’s western coast and near the capital Sanaa.
The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
But the Maariv newspaper warned about the increasing involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthi forces.
“Iran has invested more in the Houthis in recent weeks following the collapse of the Shiite axis, making the Houthi movement a leader of this axis,” the newspaper noted.
Underscoring the failures of Israel’s air defense systems, Maariv said the “Arrow” missile defense system, Israel's main line of defense against ballistic missiles, had failed four times in a row to intercept missiles, including three launched from Yemen and one from Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Ben-Yishai also warned that the threat posed by maneuvering warheads on Iran's heavy, long-range missiles would become existential for Israel should Iran succeed in developing nuclear warheads for these missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 said that in recent months, the Middle East has changed beyond recognition.
The channel said that for the first time in more than half a century, a direct and threat-free air corridor has been opened to Iran through the Middle East. Israel will benefit from this corridor to launch almost daily attacks on the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, it said.
Channel 12 also reported that according to the Israeli military, the new threat-free corridor will help Israel launch a future attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“From Israel's perspective, the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Iranian ring of fire are changing the balance of power in the Middle East,” the report added.