The US is taking serious action after threats and statements made over the last months about the Russian influence and presence in Libya and its intervention both politically and militarily.
Al Minitor website said it had learned that US Congress is preparing bipartisan sanctions on Russia over the allegations of Wagner Group mercenaries and other suspected human rights violators operating in Libya, as the Donald Trump administration looks to use the recent entry of Moscow-linked paramilitaries into the conflict to reinvigorate a long-dormant American strategy in Libya.
Foreign relations committee member Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are set to introduce legislation codifying Treasury Department sanctions to limit Russian proxy activity.
The bill would would give the State Department $23 million to spend on Libyan civil society and future elections over the next four years.
as the United Nations looks to a renewed effort to unify the country with a conference in Germany. The conference had been originally scheduled for October but then was postponed.
The bill also would require Trump to appoint a new special envoy for Libya, a position that has been vacant since the end of the Barack Obama administration.
In a statement provided to Congress earlier this year, former US Africa Command chief Gen. Thomas Waldhauser said Russia’s strategy involved invoking Moammar Ghadafi-era ‘‘relationships and debts to obtain economic and military contracts” to access Libyan oil and ramp up arms sales as it seeks to monitor NATO countries and isolate Europe from Africa through greater control of the Mediterranean.
Al Monitor experts say Russia’s renewed interest in Libya could backfire by drawing the United States deeper into the conflict by consolidating American strategy around the entry of Moscow-linked proxies.
