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How Have Internationally Sanctioned Suspects Reemerged in Libya?

An armored personnel vehicle drives down a street in the Libyan coastal city of Surman on April 13, 2020. (AFP)
An armored personnel vehicle drives down a street in the Libyan coastal city of Surman on April 13, 2020. (AFP)
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How Have Internationally Sanctioned Suspects Reemerged in Libya?

An armored personnel vehicle drives down a street in the Libyan coastal city of Surman on April 13, 2020. (AFP)
An armored personnel vehicle drives down a street in the Libyan coastal city of Surman on April 13, 2020. (AFP)

The sudden appearance of Ahmed al-Dabashi, a prominent human trafficker on an international blacklist, in Libya after a two-year absence has raised many questions. Dabashi, also known as "Ammu", had emerged in the western city of Sabratha, days after the Government of National Accord (GNA), captured it.

The United Nations Security Council had in June 2018 imposed sanctions against four Libyans, including Dabashi, for human trafficking. Since then, he had disappeared from Libya, until last week, when he was seen with other wanted suspects among the GNA forces.

His emergence coincided with Libyan National Army (LNA) spokesman Ahmed al-Mismari's announcement that members of the al-Qaeda, ISIS and Ansar al-Sharia extremist groups had taken part in the attack launched by the GNA against Sabratha, Surman and several other cities on the western coast.

Head of a research and studies institute in Libya, Jamal Shalouf, told Asharq Al-Awsat that internationally wanted fugitives are fighting alongside the GNA. They include Dabashi and Abdulrahman al-Miladi, also known as "al-Bidja".

He revealed that some 400 prisoners have been released from Surman jail, according to GNA justice ministry estimates. Some of the released inmates include suspects charged with supporting ISIS in Sabratha.

"Many of the prisoners have a long history of kidnapping, murder and armed robbery," he added.

The wanted international fugitives will try to "impose themselves" on the scene in Libya through reprisals against the people, especially LNA supporters, warned Shalouf.

Mismari had on Sunday announced that Saleh al-Dabashi, Ahmed's brother, was arrested by the LNA in al-Twaisha region south of Tripoli.

Saleh is a major human trafficker in the region and he was detained along with several mercenaries and Libyan fugitives.

Head of of the Republican Coalition party Ezzeddine Aguil said the emergence Ammu, or the "emperor of human trafficking" as he described him, "clearly means that several European countries were supporting militias in order to stem the flow of illegal migrants towards them."

He cited several media reports throughout the past two years that spoke of him receiving finds from Italian intelligence to stop the trafficking of people from Libya to Europe.

A spokesman for the GNA military operation against the LNA, Mustafa al-Majei dismissed claims that the government forces had released ISIS prisoners.

"Such allegations are only meant to deflect from the defeat," he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

He instead accused parties affiliated with the east-based government of releasing over 300 prisoners "in order to spread chaos" in liberated cities.

"We welcomed a United Nations investigation into the incident and we have cooperated with it to reveal the truth to all," he added.

"We do not harbor wanted terrorists," he stressed, saying all the LNA did was circulate photos of "Ammu" and adding that he is wanted on fuel smuggling, not terrorism, charges.

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Report: Trump Opposed Planned Israeli Strike on Iranian Nuclear Sites

In this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran on Oct. 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP, File)
In this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran on Oct. 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP, File)
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Report: Trump Opposed Planned Israeli Strike on Iranian Nuclear Sites

In this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran on Oct. 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP, File)
In this photo provided by the Israeli army, armed Israeli Air Force planes depart from an unknown location to attack Iran on Oct. 26, 2024. (Israeli Army via AP, File)

Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions, reported the New York Times.

Trump made his decision after months of internal debate over whether to pursue diplomacy or support Israel in seeking to set back Iran’s ability to build a bomb, at a time when Iran has been weakened militarily and economically.

The debate highlighted fault lines between historically hawkish American cabinet officials and other aides more skeptical that a military assault on Iran could destroy the country’s nuclear ambitions and avoid a larger war. It resulted in a rough consensus, for now, against military action, with Iran signaling a willingness to negotiate.

Israeli officials had recently developed plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites in May. They were prepared to carry them out, and at times were optimistic that the United States would sign off. The goal of the proposals, according to officials briefed on them, was to set back Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by a year or more.

Almost all of the plans would have required US help not just to defend Israel from Iranian retaliation, but also to ensure that an Israeli attack was successful, making the United States a central part of the attack itself.

For now, Trump has chosen diplomacy over military action. In his first term, he tore up the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration. But in his second term, eager to avoid being sucked into another war in the Middle East, he has opened negotiations with Tehran, giving it a deadline of just a few months to negotiate a deal over its nuclear program.

Earlier this month, Trump informed Israel of his decision that the United States would not support an attack. He discussed it with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when Netanyahu visited Washington last week, using an Oval Office meeting to announce that the United States was beginning talks with Iran.

In a statement delivered in Hebrew after the meeting, Netanyahu said that an agreement with Iran would only work if it allowed the signatories to “go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision with American execution.”

The New York Times based its report on conversations with multiple officials briefed on Israel’s secret miliary plans and confidential discussions inside the Trump administration. Most of the people interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military planning.

Israel has long planned to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, rehearsing bombing runs and calculating how much damage it could do with or without American help.

But support within the Israeli government for a strike grew after Iran suffered a string of setbacks last year.

In attacks on Israel in April, most of Iran’s ballistic missiles were unable to penetrate American and Israeli defenses. Hezbollah, Iran’s key ally, was decimated by an Israeli military campaign last year. The subsequent fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria eliminated a Hezbollah and Tehran ally and cut off a prime route of weapons smuggling from Iran.

Air defense systems in Iran and Syria were also destroyed, along with the facilities that Iran uses to make missile fuel, crippling the country’s ability to produce new missiles for some time.

Initially, at the behest of Netanyahu, senior Israeli officials updated their American counterparts on a plan that would have combined an Israeli commando raid on underground nuclear sites with a bombing campaign, an effort that the Israelis hoped would involve American aircraft, reported the New York Times.

But Israeli military officials said the commando operation would not be ready until October. Netanyahu wanted it carried out more quickly. Israeli officials began shifting to a proposal for an extended bombing campaign that would have also required American assistance, according to officials briefed on the plan.

Some American officials were at least initially more open to considering the Israeli plans. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of US Central Command, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, both discussed how the United States could potentially support an Israeli attack, if Trump backed the plan, according to officials briefed on the discussions.

With the United States intensifying its war against the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, Kurilla, with the blessing of the White House, began moving military equipment to the Middle East. A second aircraft carrier, Carl Vinson, is now in the Middle East, joining the carrier Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.

The United States also moved two Patriot missile batteries and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, known as a THAAD, to the Middle East.

Around a half-dozen B-2 bombers capable of carrying 30,000-pound bombs essential to destroying Iran’s underground nuclear program were dispatched to Diego Garcia, an island base in the Indian Ocean.

Even if the United States decided not to authorize the aircraft to take part in a strike on Iran, Israel would know that the American fighters were available to defend against attacks by an Iranian ally.