The United Arab Emirates with a secret airlift supplies weapons to General Khalifa Haftar. The news leaked from a United Nations report. The war has started in Libya since 2011, when a popular uprising supported by the West and its allies led to the death of the country's dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. Much of the east of the country is controlled by the Tobruk-led government, backed by the United States, which is entrusted to the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar. The LNA is fighting against the Libyan government of national accord recognized by the United Nations, led by Fayez al Serraj.
In February 2011, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1970, which - among other things - prohibits the export of war material to Libya. The resolution was further strengthened in 2014 and remains in force today. But the weapons continue to arrive in Libya. In 2017, it was discovered that the LNA was receiving covert military assistance from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, in violation of the embargo. Now another report claims that much of the military assistance to the LNA arrives in Libya via a "secret airlift" operated by the United Arab Emirates. According to Bloomberg news agency, the information comes from a leaked report from a UN panel, excerpts of which were presented to the United States Security Council in early May.
The report says there has been a substantial increase in "secret flights" from UAE airports and the Gulf country's military airbase in Eritrea. In early January alone, at least 37 of these secret flights landed at Libyan airports in areas under the control of the LNA, the report said. These secret deliveries were handled by "a complex network of companies", which were registered in the United Arab Emirates, the British Virgin Islands and Kazakhstan.
Bloomberg contacted the UAE Ambassador to the United Nations, Lana Nusseibeh, who dismissed the claims as "false" and said the UAE government denied them "in their entirety". He added that UAE officials will continue to work with the United Nations to investigate alleged violations of the 1970 UN resolution. Bloomberg also contacted LNA officials but received no response.
