Jordan: Help for Haftar's army

Khalifa Haftar, the former renegade general and now commander in chief of Libya's Tobruk government, has reportedly arrived in Amman for talks with Jordan's military supremo.

A source in the Jordanian army has told al-Araby al-Jadeed that Haftar arrived in Amman on the evening of 12 April for an official visit at the invitation of General Mashal al-Zabin, the Chairman of Jordan's Joint Chiefs-of-Staff.

The source said Haftar’s unannounced visit was to discuss plans for the Jordanian military involvement in the restructuring of the Libyan army. Tobruk-based Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni had asked Jordan in March to help the Libyan army and that Jordanian divisional commanders had been instructed to meet their Libyan counterparts to discuss the arrangements for this.

The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that "the talks have reached an advanced stage". Jordan, he said, would train Libyan troops and rearm sections of the Libyan army led by Haftar.

Haftar’s is expected to stay in Jordan for three days. He plans to meet political and military officials, including King Abdullah II.

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.