“La Repubblica” newspaper: Italy offers Haftar a deal for refusing to cooperate with Russia

The Italian newspaper “La Repubblica” revealed that Rome is currently offering the American Khalifa Haftar a deal, according to which he would refuse to cooperate with Russia, noting that this offer was carried by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during her visit to Libya.

The Italian newspaper indicated that the deal that Meloni seeks to conclude includes more income for Haftar from the sale of Libyan oil in exchange for reducing cooperation with Russia.

The newspaper pointed out that, for years, Al-Dabaiba has been dividing oil revenues among armed militias, regardless of their position in the conflict, and buying truce periods, which brought him into conflict with the governor of the Central Bank of Libya.

It continued by saying, “The crisis for Haftar currently is that he does not have such resources as Al-Dabaiba has, which will make him accept any Italian deal that enables him to access additional financial resources.”

The newspaper went on to say, “Meloni knows that there is another source of income, which is sending migrants, which Rome is asking Haftar to prevent.”

It pointed out that “one of the methods that Italy seeks to adopt is that most oil production is more economically beneficial for local groups, in order to stop or slow down the migration flows that cause such concern in light of the European elections.”

The newspaper concluded by saying that Meloni handed over to Haftar a request for cooperation to put an end to the presence of “foreign forces” on Libyan territory, in a clear reference to Russian cooperation, through which Rome fears Cyrenaica will become “a major logistical base for Russia in the Mediterranean.”