Aftandilian in The Arab Weekly on US-Libya Relations
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published a recent Op-Ed on the state of relations between the United States and Libya under President Donald Trump.
Aftandilian’s Op-Ed, entitled “Deciphering Trump’s Surprising Stance on Libya,” was published on April 28, 2019 in The Arab Weekly.
From the text of the article:
Like his Syria policy, which went through several contradictory iterations in 2018, US President Donald Trump has upended his Libya policy with his recent phone call to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar.
In a White House readout of the April 15 call, which was not reported until April 19, Trump “recognised Field-Marshal Haftar’s significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya’s oil resources.”
While the statement added that the “two discussed a shared vision for Libya’s transition to a stable, democratic political system,” the first part was interpreted as an endorsement of Haftar’s military offensive against the UN-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli and his attempt to take over the country.
This praise of Haftar came a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated before a congressional committee that the Trump administration has made it “clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftar’s forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital.”
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).