Data from flight-tracking websites showed that a Libyan Airbus A319, registration P4-KH5I9, flew from Benghazi to Abu Dhabi on Sunday, at the same time that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the UAE to meet Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Italian outlet Il Folgio reported on Tuesday.
The plane has been used by Saddam Haftar, son of the leader of the Benghazi-based Libyan National Army, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and candidate for the Libyan presidency.
Additionally, state flights from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar appeared to land at the UAE’s Al Bateen Executive Airport, southeast of Abu Dhabi, on Sunday while Netanyahu was on the ground.
Il Foglio‘s report implies that Haftar and Netanyahu also met in the UAE, although neither Israeli officials nor pro-Haftar Libyan sources have corroborated this at the time of writing.
Notably, the UAE has been a major backer of Haftar and the LNA throughout the Libyan Civil War. After the conflict cooled in 2021, Haftar’s LNA remained in control of large parts of eastern and southern Libya, but international organizations do not widely recognize it as the de facto government of Libya.
Israeli officials, Haftar have previously met, according to reports
This is not the first time that the Haftars have reportedly met Israeli officials. In 2021, officials from Israel’s intelligence Ministry reportedly met with Saddam Haftar, who, as a senior military commander and deputy LNA leader, has authority to act as a proxy on behalf of his father on the international stage.
Later, in November 2021, Saddam Haftar reportedly flew to Ben-Gurion Airport to discuss potentially normalizing relations with Israeli officials. The visit, which was first reported by Haaretz, was a brief stop while traveling from Dubai to Libya, reports at the time noted.
According to reports at the time, Haftar had previously contacted Mossad’s international relations division, known as “Tevel,” which coordinates with countries with which Israel has no diplomatic relations.
Khalifa Haftar reportedly requested Israeli “military and diplomatic assistance” in return for normalization, according to Haaretz at the time.
Additionally, Khalifa Haftar’s private jet reportedly landed in Israel in January 2022, where it remained for two hours before returning to Cyprus, as noted by The Jerusalem Post at the time.
Days before Khalifa’s visit, the internationally recognized Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibah and then-Mossad director David Barnea met in Jordan to discuss normalization and security cooperation, according to Saudi and Libyan media reports. However, Dbeibah’s office denied that any such meeting happened.
Yonah Jeremy Bob and Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.
