Former UK chancellor Kwarteng once praised Libyan warlord Haftar as a 'stable' alternative amid political 'chaos'

Former UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng once praised Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar for offering "stable" leadership amid a time of political "chaos" in the north African country. 

The Conservative MP wrote an article in the Evening Standard in 2017 that lambasted the lack of stability in Libya following the 2011 revolution, which received air support from NATO.

The revolution brought to an end 42 years of iron-fisted rule by Muammar al-Gaddafi but was followed by years of political infighting and factionalism. 

Kwarteng’s article pointed to Haftar, who has been accused of numerous human rights abuses and atrocities, as a potential and welcome political alternative with the ability "to give Libya some control of its borders". 

"Some people are hopeful that President Trump will seize the initiative and come up with a plan to back Field Marshal Haftar," wrote the former Chancellor, who was sacked just 38 days after he took the Treasury position. 

"Such a move would not strictly confirm to the ideals of ‘democratic state building’ but it might provide a stable government to give Libya some control of its borders," Kwarteng added.

While the US under Trump's administration maintained official relations with the UN-sponsored Government of National Accord (GNA), which was in power until 2020, it also made overtures to Haftar, who refused to recognise its authority and launched a massive assault on Tripoli in 2019.

Haftar, an American citizen, once said Libya was not ready for democracy. 

Head of the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), he has been accused of torture and extrajudicial killings against the Libyan people.

A US judge found Haftar liable of war crimes in July 2022. 

Members of the LNA, allegedly under his command, have been indicted for war crimes by the international criminal court. 

Libya has been plagued by political instability for over a decade, with a deadly civil war breaking out in 2014 after Haftar's LNA launched 'Operation Dignity' against rival militias in Benghazi.

Currently, long-awaited elections have been delayed as the country continues to be split between eastern and western factions. 

Kwasi Kwarteng, who was educated at Cambridge and Harvard university, is known for his liberatiarian, uncomprosing political beliefs - which were blamed for precipating an unprecedented crash in the British pound in September. 

He was fired as chancellor in Liz Truss' government just weeks after taking the post in a surprise announcement on October 14.