Following the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – is Libya the next in line to make peace with Israel and join the Abraham Accords? The political camps in the North African country, which has suffered two brutal civil wars over the past decade, are preparing for a highly charged election campaign that will determine Libya's future.
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According to senior Libyan officials with close ties to the leading presidential candidate, Gen. Khalifa Haftar, it appears the large Arab country is moving toward normalization with Israel. Haftar has recently voiced his desire on several occasions to normalize ties with Israel, and declared he would work to that end if he is elected president on December 24.
Israel Hayom reported in late October that an Israeli consulting firm was advising both Haftar and his main rival, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the former tyrant Muammar Gaddafi, who was deposed and killed in a violent uprising 10 years ago.
Haftar, who has also earmarked a senior role in the next government for his son, Saddam, if he wins the election, has the support of the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Western actors, but he has apparently pinned a great deal of hope on relations with Israel.
"Only a normalization agreement with Israel, which will bring Libya into the Abraham Accords, can catalyze Libya's rehabilitation plan, which stands at hundreds of billions of dollars," Haftar has reportedly told his confidantes.
Libya's goal, he has said, is to receive financial aid from the international community, which requires a change of direction from the next president-elect and his government. Joining the Abraham Accords, according to Haftar, could pave the path for Libya to return to the family of nations, secure the necessary aid from the International Monetary Fund, and diplomatic support from the US and European Union.
A senior official in the UAE, who is close to both the leading candidates in Libya, told Israel Hayom: "On the matter of Libya's desire and need to normalize its relations with Israel and join the Abraham Accords, there is consensus among the two candidates. Both have said in the past that normalization with Israel is on the table, and on many occasions both have told their close advisers in private that they would work in earnest to make that happen."
The senior UAE official added, however, that even if either of the candidates eventually does normalize ties with Israel, it would be a vastly different type of relationship than with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.
"If the initiative is implemented," the official said, "it will happen at a very slow pace, very cautiously, somewhat similar to the normalization process between Israel and Sudan."
Meanwhile, an official in Haftar's campaign headquarters told Israel Hayom that "it's still too early to discuss a normalization agreement with Israel and how that would look. First of all, Gen. Haftar has to actually win, and we are certain he will. As of now, though, we have no interest in bringing the issue of future relations with Israel to the agenda, because the Libyan public harbors traditional and structured hostility toward it. At this juncture, such conversations can only harm Haftar's chances of winning the election."
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