Libya commander wants to force global engagement

LIBYA'S eastern authorities recently expelled a senior European delegation in a move analysts say was meant to send a message: the unrecognised administration backed by military leader Khalifa Haftar cannot be ignored.

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On July 8, an EU commissioner and ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta were in Libya to discuss irregular migration from the North African country.

Their visit was divided in two, as is Libya, which is still grappling with the aftermath of the armed conflict and political chaos that followed the 2011 Nato-backed uprising that toppled longtime dictator Muammer Gaddafi.

The delegation first visited the capital Tripoli, seat of the internationally recognised Libyan government of Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah.

They then travelled to Benghazi, in the east, where a rival administration backed by Haftar and his clan is based, and with whom the EU has generally avoided direct contact.

Almost immediately, a reported disagreement prompted the eastern authorities to accuse the European delegation of a "flagrant breach of diplomatic norms", ordering the visiting dignitaries to leave.

In Brussels, the European Commission admitted a "protocol issue".

Tarek Megerisi, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said the scene at the airport "was a calculated move".

Haftar was playing to EU fears of irregular migration in order "to generate de facto European recognition", and thus "broaden relations with Europe away from just engagement with him as a local military leader".