Sadaam Hafter, the son of Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, visited Israel last week for a clandestine meeting with Israeli officials during which he conveyed a message from his father proposing normalizing ties with Israel in change for Israel’s “military and diplomatic assistance,” Haaretz reported.

Hafter landed at Ben-Gurion in a private jet and met with Israeli officials aboard the jet for an hour and a half. According to the report, it is unknown which Israeli officials he met with but he previously was in contact with Mossad officials from the “Tevel” department, which oversees countries that do not maintain diplomatic ties with Israel.

Libya has been embroiled in a civil war since 2011, when former dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown. Haftar is hoping to be elected Libya’s president in December, when elections that are aimed at establishing a reconciliation government, are being held. His main rival is Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of the deposed Gaddafi, who was part of his father’s inner circle and is wanted under an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. In an interview with The New York Times, in July 2021, Said defended his notorious father’s legacy.

Meanwhile, Haftar’s reputation as a strongman is well-earned and he has been accused of war crimes perpetrated during the bloody civil war in his role as head of the Libyan National Army.

A Yisrael Hayom report on Thursday confirmed that Haftar has expressed his interest in normalizing ties with Israel and said he will work toward that goal if elected president.

“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 reportedly said to members of his inner circle.

A senior official in the UAE, who is close to both the leading candidates in Libya, told Yisrael 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.”

“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 Yisrael 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.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)