Saif al-Islam Gaddafi makes another comeback attempt in Libya

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is back in the headlines this week with the usual tactics of cryptic messaging falling shy of showing himself. However, this time Gaddafi's comeback seems to have a military dimension to it, along with an impressive social component that makes this attempt considerably more compelling than any of his past failed attempts.

A closer look

The week started for Saif al-Islam with a statement by his political team commenting on Bathily’s resignation, stating that “Bathily tried to summarise Libya within five personalities, whom he declared do not want to change the status quo.” Gaddafi’s political team held all of Libya’s political class and rulers responsible, calling for change and warning that the country cannot handle any more chaos.

This was followed by a military and tribal components of Zintan holding a ‘military parade’ with a force of 300 armed vehicles, and issuing a statement from the western mountain town calling for elections and an end to the political deadlock, as well as warning that they will not accept their candidate, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, being excluded from the electoral race. Saif al-Islam followed this by issuing a statement of his own citing a verse from the Quran reading “if you had spent all that is on earth, you would not have managed to unite their hearts, but God did” along with “the mountains, a strong pillar”.

The verse refers to the political class and its attempts to buy loyalties in the western mountains, and refers to his reconciliation with his once captors. His reference to the western mountains as a strong pillar to his work going forward, also outlines his intent of coming back to the political scene, albeit cryptically, and his messaging that the western mountains will become his own sphere of influence in Libya.

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