Saddam Haftar is eyeing the throne in Libya

Eastern Libya spent nearly seven years denouncing the maritime memorandum Turkiye struck with its rivals based in Tripoli. Last week, it needed a single sitting of the legislature to embrace it. On October 20, the House of Representatives (HoR) in Benghazi ratified the deal . The European Union condemned the vote, as did Greece, Israel and Egypt. Yet the ratification was less a Turkish triumph than the final act of a sequence choreographed by Saddam Haftar, the son of Khalifa Haftar, the military commander who controls eastern Libya. The ultimate goal is the Libyan presidency. The United States is currently trying to broker a power-sharing arrangement between Tripoli and Benghazi.