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Issued on: 16/12/2019 - 19:43Modified: 16/12/2019 - 19:43

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with FRANCE 24, the International Criminal Court'sChief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda discussed the ICC's ongoing cases regarding Libya, Ivory Coast, the Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan, Myanmar and the Philippines.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 from The Hague, the ICC chief prosecutor warned Libyan Marshal Khalifa Haftar that she was monitoring his current offensive on Tripoli. She urged him to hand over one of his lieutenants, Mahmoud al-Werfalli, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court and whom Haftar recently promoted.

On the case against former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, Bensouda expressed hope that appeals judges would overturn the acquittal granted by the court back in January. She stressed that she was also actively pursuing her investigation into possible crimes by current PresidentAlassaneOuattara's camp.

Bensouda told FRANCE 24 her preliminary probe into potential crimes in the Palestinian territories was nearing its conclusion. She admitted the court had been under pressure by the Trump administration to drop her probe into crimes in Afghanistan, including a ban on her travelling to the US.

She added that she had just recently been authorised by judges to open a probe into crimes against the Rohingya minority by the Myanmar authoritiesbut that it was too early to say if this would involvesenior Myanmar military chiefs.

Finally, Bensouda said her office was looking into crimes in the "war on drugs" in the Philippinesbut that it was not yet possible to say whether thiswould target President Rodrigo Duterte.

Click on the player above to watch the full interview

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Exclusive: ICC chief prosecutor sends warning to Libyan strongman Haftar - The Interview - FRANCE 24

The Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the rejection by the House of Representatives in Tobruk of the Libyan-Turkish MoUs had put the Arab League in trouble.

Aboul Gheit said in a TV interview that Libya is a member of the Arab League and has an internationally recognized government that is called "Government of National Accord", which signed the MoUs with Turkey.

He added that the Arab League received letters on the issue from both sides, but had decided to freeze them as he doesn't want to weaken the Arab League any more, as it is going through the weakest times since it was established in 1945.

The Tobruk-based HoR, and its supporting Arab countries, especially Egypt which hosts the Arab League HQ, rejected the two MoUs between Libya and Turkey.

HoR Speaker Aqila Saleh informed the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres after the signing of the MoUs that the HoR rejects it and called for withdrawing international recognition from the Presidential Council and asked for the HoR to be internationally recognized.

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Libya's Tobruk-based HoR has put the Arab League in trouble - The Libya Observer

Libya is playing host to a bitter war that has witnessed the country being carved up. Those responsible for Muammar Gaddafis ouster are taking the next step and plundering the country. The U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), joined by France and Russia, established a coalition, a joint front, against the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in aims to share Libya, its oil and natural gas.

The have all lined up behind Khalifa Haftar, who is one of the terror barons the CIA has bred for our region. He is a Trojan horse. He is one of the names to be used for the great alliance in question and their affiliated companies, and later tossed like a rag to a corner.

Haftar is Libyas Daesh; the biggest terrorist organization

With extraordinary military support, Haftars army has become the biggest terrorist organization in our region, after Daesh and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The role Haftar has undertaken in Libya is one and the same as the role Daesh assumed in Syria. His army is currently the biggest terrorist organization in the region.

He receives great amounts of ammunition support daily from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, France, the U.S. and Russia. Egyptian troops are directly involved in the war. So are French forces. Meanwhile, the UAE amassed all its air forces in Libya.

Countries trying to corner Turkey in the north of Syria through the PKK and Daesh, then aspiring to open the Turkey front, have, this time, established the same front in Libya. Haftar is receiving shipments the same way the PKK and its Syrian affiliate the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) received them. Another country is being destroyed by the hands of Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The same front, same alliance is attacking Turkey from the Mediterranean this time

Turkey cracked the siege in Syria and rendered the project dysfunctional with the Euphrates Shield, Afrin and Peace Spring operations. The terror corridor, the map plan collapsed. Turkey not only fought the PKK there but it also had to fight the Saudi Arabia-UAE-Egypt bloc. The map that extended from the Iranian border to the Mediterranean collapsed.

Right at this moment, one leg of the siege was being carried out through the sea. The siege was being extended from the Iranian border toward the Mediterranean. A massive front, alliance was formed in a bid to corner Turkey from the East Mediterranean and siege it from the Mediterranean and the Aegean. The U.S., Israel, Greece, the Greek Cypriot Administration of South Cyprus (GCAS), France, certain EU countries, along with the Saudi administration, Egypt, and the UAE, stood up against Turkey here as well.

UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt fighting Turkey across the region

There are deals upon deals, alliances upon alliances made over East Mediterranean energy resources; this time the Mediterranean was being carved up. Similar to that in northern Syria, the entire goal here was to siege Turkey, corner it, keep it out and drown it. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt had assumed the role of assassin again, and were hiding behind Israel and the Wests power while fighting against Turkey.

Turkey did not backtrack in any way. Instead, it resisted and challenged. It responded to the attacks with an offensive as it did in northern Syria. It steered its drillships to the Mediterranean and started operations in accordance with its own map. It activated its fleets in the Mediterranean and Aegean. This served to deter and frighten some companies and spoiled some countries plans.

Turkeys maritime deal with Libya: We were already neighbors! Theyre all in panic

Yet, Turkeys greatest blow was the Exclusive Economic Zone deal it made with Libya. Nobody was expecting this, which is why it caused a major shock effect in opposing countries. Everyone was taking position in accordance with the Mediterranean map identified by the West, but Turkey put forth a game-changing map. Turkey and Libya became neighbors through their sea borders, leading to a significant expansion in both countries surface area. The Mediterranean plans have been destroyed. They were not ready for this. They all gathered in panic and started to threaten Turkey in unison.

Sending troops to Libya means establishing a defense shield there

The deal between Turkey and Libya was not limited to their maritime borders. Both countries signed a military cooperation agreement. Accordingly, in the case that Libya requests it, Turkey can send troops to the country, train and arm the Libyan military.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoan stated twice, We may send troops if Libya requests it. Turkey is already covertly in Libya. However, this deal enables the open deployment of land forces, fleets and air forces to Libya.

Turkey is striving to stop a great threat that is targeting it in Libya. It wants to prevent Libyas division, negate plans aimed at drowning Turkey in the Mediterranean, and establish its defense shield there. Beyond being a desire, this is, in fact, an obligation. We will not allow them to exacerbate the situation, which we experienced in northern Syria, in the Mediterranean.

So, what were we supposed to do, surrender? Turkey has never, nor will it ever.

A meticulous siege map determined to surround Turkey from the Iranian border to the East Mediterranean, from the Aegean to the Balkans is being implemented. This is a nightmare scenario aimed at stopping Turkey, confining it within Anatolia, ending its new rising era, and then suffocating it inside.

Needless to say, they simultaneously built the same front within the country. What was a country to do in such a situation? Should it have surrendered? Was it supposed to do what the U.S., Israel, France, Greece, the UAE and Egypt dictated? Is Turkey such a country? Is there any instance in its centuries-long political history? No, there never has and never will be.

Not an internal politics matter, cut the hogwash.

Clashes in Libya have immensely intensified. We may wake up to extraordinary developments any day now. If they have their way in Libya, we may have no area of maneuver left in the Mediterranean and Aegean. They will drown us, which is what they intend to do anyway. This is not a matter of internal politics; it is a matter of the region, history and the future. Hence, Turkey will be and has to be present in both Libya and the Mediterranean with all its might, including sending troops and openly going to war!

We are there today for the same reasons we were in the 1911-1912 Turco-Italian War. We are present across the entire region and will continue to be so. Otherwise, they will not allow us to exist in Anatolia. We saw this a century ago. We are not going to go through the same scenario once more as the world is being re-established and maps are being redrawn.

Deployment can start any moment. The UAE is our open enemy; everything necessary must be done.

Libya may experience significant changes within the next few days. Turkey may deploy military forces to this country at any moment. The Turkish military will go to Libya if it must. Turkey cannot be allowed to be squeezed in-between the Aegeans narrow islands. It cannot be isolated from the region. It cannot be kicked out of the Mediterranean. We have memorized this game by now.

Additionally, it should be noted that the UAE is Turkeys biggest enemy, in every corner of the region across borders, and that it is a monument of evil. A struggle must be started in all known areas against this country; whatever is necessary, whatever can be done, must be done.

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Turkey may send troops to Libya anytime now! The same front, same alliance is attacking Turkey from the Mediterranean this time. This is not a matter...

CAIRO The prime minister of Libya's U.N.-supported government Friday shrugged off threats by his rival, the commander of a self-styled army waging a months-long offensive to capture the capital Tripoli that the zero hour of the battle has begun.

Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj called on Libyans to rally around him in the defense of the nation.

Sarraj's call came a day after Gen. Khalifa Hifter of the self-styled Libyan National Army declared a final, decisive battle" to take Tripoli from Sarraj's U.N.-supported government. "The zero hour has ticked," Hifter said in a televised speech late Thursday.

Since 2015, war-torn Libya has been divided between two governments, one in the east and the other in the west, based in Tripoli and supported by the United Nations, as well as Italy, Turkey and Qatar.

In April, Hifter's east-based army, which is backed by France, Russia and key Arab countries, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, launched its push on the capital.

After nearly eight months of fighting, Khalifa's forces have not taken Tripoli but have been held off on the city's southern edges, instead laying siege on the Libyan capital. The stalemated fighting has so far left more than 1,000 people dead, mostly combatants. Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced.

In a video posted on the Libyan government's Facebook page, Sarraj dismissed Hifter's claim about a new push as lies" and delusions" and said his forces have already taught the invaders a lesson.

"I call upon you to rally around the project of a civil state and to show faith in our right to build a state, based on institutions, the rule of law and liberties, Sarraj said. Libya can only end up as an oasis for freedom and democracy.

Since the fighting erupted, Sarraj has portrayed himself as a democratic leader who strives to thwart his rival's alleged attempts to instate a military dictatorship in Libya. Meanwhile, Hifter has argued that his military operation seeks to purge the capital of radical militias allied with Sarraj's government.

The latest statements from Hifter and Sarraj come amid heightened tension between the two warring sides after Sarraj's government signed a security arrangement and maritime deal with Turkey last month. Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyeb Erdogan said the agreement gives his country the right to send troops to Libya to fend off Hifter's forces from Tripoli.

The head of the EU's delegation for relations with Maghreb Countries, Andrea Cozzolino, said Friday she was concerned about Hifter's threats and warned that a new offensive would only lead "to more suffering for the Libyan civilian population, who have already paid a high price.

I call on the European Union and the international community as a whole to condemn such threats and take all necessary measures to prevent a bloodbath, she said in a statement posted on the official website of the EU parliament.

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Libyan PM Unfazed by Commander's Zero Hour Tripoli Push - The New York Times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants to work with Russia to end the conflict in Libya, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, but he added that he reminded Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov a day ago of the arms embargo that is in place on the North African country.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reacts to reporter's question after making a statement to the press at the State Department in Washington, U.S., December 11, 2019. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Speaking at a news conference at the U.S. State Department, Pompeo said there could be no military solution to the fighting and that Washington had warned countries against sending weapons to Libya.

We want to work with the Russians to get to the negotiating table, have a series of conversations that ultimately lead to a disposition that creates what the UN has been trying to do, Pompeo said.

Foreign Minister Lavrov told me directly yesterday he is prepared to be part of that, to continue it. I reminded him that there is a weapons embargo that is still in place in Libya, and that no nation ought to be providing incremental materiel inside of Libya, he said.

Libya has been divided since 2014 into rival military and political camps based in the capital Tripoli and the east. Fayez al-Serrajs government is in conflict with forces led by Khalifa Haftar based in eastern Libya.

Haftars Libyan National Army (LNA) has been trying since April to take Tripoli. He is backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and most recently Russian mercenaries, according to diplomats and Tripoli officials. The LNA denies it has foreign backing.

U.S. President Donald Trump called Haftar in the first weeks of the offensive, in a move that some diplomats took as sign Washington might be backing the former Gaddafi officer. But the United States last month called on the LNA to end its offensive on Tripoli. It also warned against Russias interference.

We have reached out not only to the Russians but to others who are providing weapon systems there and saying its not in the best interest, Pompeo said.

Diplomats say Turkey has supplied drones and trucks to forces allied to Serraj, while the LNA has received support from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

Two weeks ago Libyas internationally recognized government and Turkey signed an expanded security and military accord, and a memorandum on maritime boundaries, a step that angered Greece, triggering it to expel the Libyan ambassador in response.

Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumaker

Link:
Pompeo says U.S. wants to work with Russia on Libya, reminded Lavrov of arms embargo - Reuters