According to the U.S. Special Envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey during a conference call on Thursday said: “We know for sure that the Russians are working with (Syrian President Bashar) Assad to transport fighters, perhaps from a third country, and perhaps from the Syrians, to Libya in addition to hardware,”
He did not give any details or provide any evidence to corroborate these allegations. “The battlefield in that country may become more complicated,” Jeffrey said, referring to a secret U.N. report on Wednesday that talked about the so-called “Wagner Russian Special Military Group” deploying about 1,200 personnel in Libya to reinforce the Libyan National Army.
In turn, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Henry Worcester expressed Washington’s unease about the relations between Haftar and Assad, and he said during the same press conference: “Another very disturbing thing is … Haftar’s establishment of so-called diplomatic relations with the Assad regime.”
As for the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Christopher Robinson, he claimed that “Russian activities in Libya weaken the political peace process in the country and enhance the pace of conflicts there”, and that Libya “has become the new station for Russia’s malicious efforts centered on narrow political and economic gains” .
While Russian President Vladimir Putin has also previously said during his visit to Syria and Turkey in January that Russian Federation is not in Libya at all and not intending to be there, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has previously described the allegations that “Russian mercenaries” are present in Libya as nothing more than rumours,
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