No Sudanese Armed Forces Sent To Support Libya's Haftar - Military Spokesman

Sudan has not sent any members of the armed forces to Libya in order to provide military support for the Libyan National Army (LNA), headed by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, in its fight against the rival UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), the Sudanese military's spokesman, Brig. Gen. Amer Mohammed al-Hassan, told Sputnik in an interview

KHARTOUM (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th May, 2020) Sudan has not sent any members of the armed forces to Libya in order to provide military support for the Libyan National Army (LNA), headed by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, in its fight against the rival UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), the Sudanese military's spokesman, Brig. Gen. Amer Mohammed al-Hassan, told Sputnik in an interview.

"There are no regular Sudanese forces in Libya, as our armed troops do not take part in regional or international developments except those, which are based on an official agreement or a declared joint protocol, and anyone, who has been called up to act differently, must provide proof," the spokesman said when asked if there were any Sudanese military members in Libya supporting the LNA.

The spokesman said the military was fully committed to following international norms.

In the interview, al-Hassan also addressed recent high-profile news stories related to Sudan.

One of them, a report by Al-Jazeera that cited sources, claimed that a number of high-ranking UAE officials visited Sudan's capital of Khartoum to discuss ways of supporting Haftar and recruit fighters for the LNA. In mid-May, Libya called on the UN Security Council to urgently hold a meeting to address the role of the United Arab Emirates in the country's long running armed conflict.

Libyan Ambassador to the United Nations Taher Al-Sunni said that he had evidence of the direct illegal transfer of weapons by the UAE to the LNA.

Another story, reported by Israel's Channel 13 broadcaster, concerned an Israeli aircraft that brought medics to Sudan to help a Sudanese official who had contracted COVID-19, in what media outlets called secret ties amid deteriorated official bilateral relations. The official subsequently died despite the efforts to save his life.

Al-Hassan said that international news outlets were spreading "harmful rumors" because they were competing with each other.

Sudan, an Arab country, has no diplomatic relations with Israel. In early February, however, Sudan's Sovereign Council chairman, Abdel Fattah Burhan, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda. The transitional government said that it had learned about the talks from the media and demanded an explanation from Burhan. The latter said that the meeting had been held as part of the efforts to ensure Sudan's national security and denied that the topic involving the normalization of ties had been raised.