Partnership in terrorism: Muslim Brotherhood-Qatar role in Libya

CAIRO – 4 July 2017: Libyan army spokesman Colonel Ahmed al-Mesmari will hold a press conference at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Cairo on Tuesday to reveal Qatar’s intervention in Libya’s affairs.

In media statements, Al-Mesmari uncovered Muslim Brotherhood-Qatar cooperation to bring militants and weapons to Libya through Qatari military jets.

This comes amid escalation in Gulf row with Qatar after several Arab states severed ties with the tiny Gulf country over accusations of funding terrorism. At the meantime, new sanctions is awaiting Doha in case it did not agree to meet demands set by four Arab countries, including shutting down Al-Jazeera network and closing Turkish military base.

Libyan Wings Airlines has been known as Qatar’s way of supplying terrorists with weapons. It was revealed that the company had hidden activities to transport militants between Libya and Syria through Turkish airspace.

Here is how Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar intervened in Libya:

• The Congress’s Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015 highlights how Muslim Brotherhood groups outside Libya financed terrorist groups within Libya. It also accused the Libyan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood joining forces with AQ affiliated terrorist groups such as Ansar al Sharia against the internationally recognized Libyan government.

• During the 2011 crisis, that had extremists among its ranks. The extremists later broke away from the group and other groups to form Ansar al Sharia – which is responsible for the death of the US Ambassador. The Muslim Brotherhoods role was clearly visible from the beginning of the Libyan revolution especially with its support and influence through figures like Ali al Sallabi, a prominent figure linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and who once lived in Qatar and has strong links with the Al-Thani ruling family.

• During the days of Qaddafi, Sallabi played the role of mediator with strong Qatari backing in getting many members of the AQ affiliated Libyan Islamic Fighting Group free from prison.

• Many of the main figures in Operation Dawn (anti-Haftar) and the GNC maintain close relations with each other through their links and membership in the Muslim Brotherhood and the former Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG – AQ affiliate), which was led by Belhadj.

• Sallabi and Belhadj have been long time associates. Ali al Sallabi is also a contemporary of Yousef al Qaradawi. Which highlights the influence both Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood had on events in Libya externally.

• Qatar has shipped tons of weapons to various Islamist fighters, especially those under the command of Belhadj.


Inforgraphic - Libyan Wings airways, Qatar's tool for transporting terrorists to Libya


• US officials under the Obama administrations were themselves extremely alarmed as there was plenty of evidence that Qatar was supplying weapons to Islamic militants.

• These weapons and cash from Qatar greatly strengthened some of the most intolerant Islamist militants who went on to become a destabilizing force. According to the US, these groups were more anti-democratic, hard line and closer to an extreme version of Islam.

• Qatar was also supplying Operation Dawn and its partners with weaponry flown in from Sudan. Libya Dawn is an Islamist Military coalition, which is opposed to General Haftar. It is comprised of tribal militias, militias from Misrata, the Muslim Brotherhood backed groups, Islamists and the former Al-Qaeda affiliated and US designated terrorist group Ansar al Sharia.

• On September 11 2012, the US Ambassador to Libya, John Christopher Stevens, was killed when the US compound in Benghazi was attacked by a terrorist group.



• This group turned out to be the Al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar al Sharia, which was a partner with Muslim Brotherhood groups who still have strong backing from Qatar. The Libya Shields Benghazi branch (Libya shield is also linked with Libya Dawn and is considered to be a militia that supports the former GNC) was led by prominent Muslim Brotherhood fighter Wissam bin Hamid (killed) who was also a field commander of the Shura Council of Benghazi Revolutionaries and was a partner with Ansar al Sharia in their fight against Haftar in the same city where the ambassador was killed.