Confidential report finds Prince provided renegade Libyan common Khalifa Haftar with weapons and overseas mercenaries.
Non-public safety contractor Erik Prince, an in depth ally of former US President Donald Trump, violated a United Nations arms embargo on Libya, UN investigators have present in a report detailed by US media.
The confidential report back to the Safety Council, obtained by The New York Instances and The Washington Publish, and partly seen by Al Jazeera, mentioned on Friday that Prince deployed a drive of overseas mercenaries and weapons to renegade navy commander Khalifa Haftar, who has fought to overthrow the UN-recognised Libyan authorities, in 2019.
The $80m operation included plans to type successful squad to trace and kill Libyan commanders against Haftar – together with some who have been additionally European Union residents, The New York Instances mentioned.
Prince, a former Navy SEAL and brother of Trump’s training secretary Betsy Devos, drew infamy as the pinnacle of the Blackwater personal safety agency, whose contractors have been accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.
4 who have been convicted have been pardoned by Trump final yr.
The accusation exposes Prince to doable UN sanctions, together with a journey ban, the Instances mentioned.
Prince didn’t cooperate with the UN inquiry and his lawyer declined to remark to The New York Instances, it added.
Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from Washington, DC, mentioned the report’s findings go deeper than simply Prince’s actions.
“The UN report raises the query not solely of whether or not or not an in depth affiliate of the [former] president violated a global arms embargo, but additionally of whether or not or not the president himself was complicit in defying said US coverage,” she mentioned.
Anas el-Gomati, director of Libyan assume tank Sadeq Institute, informed Al Jazeera that utilizing personal navy contractors can permit leaders to disclaim involvement in conflicts the place they can’t be seen to be complicit for diplomatic or authorized causes.
“[In these situations] individuals like Erik Prince’s foreign money goes proper up. And the true side right here, as we’ve seen with Russia and the [private military firm] Wagner Group – and the way they’ve been deployed in a number of theatres together with Libya – is that they provide an attractive, eerie, and in reality disastrous sort of deniability to any authorities,” he mentioned.
“You’ll be able to outright refuse that you’ve any information of what’s going on,” he mentioned.
El-Gomati mentioned the report raised two essential questions.
“To what diploma did Trump assist facilitate this battle alongside Erik Prince? And extra importantly, whether or not or not Erik Prince was coordinating with Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in Libya and has helped them set up a foothold in the way in which he helped the United Arab Emirates set up a foothold in Libya,” he mentioned.
Oil-rich Libya has been torn by civil battle since a NATO-backed rebellion led to the toppling and killing of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The nation has in recent times been break up between a Authorities of Nationwide Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, backed by Turkey, and an eastern-based administration, whose forces are led by Haftar and backed by Russia, the UAE, and Egypt, amongst others.
Then-President Trump in 2019 praised Haftar – who has confronted accusations of battle crimes – for his function in “preventing terrorism” in Libya.
A brand new interim govt for the nation was chosen on February 5 by the Libyan Political Dialogue Discussion board in Switzerland, comprising 75 contributors chosen by the UN to signify a broad cross-section of society.
Haftar has pledged his assist for the initiative.