The United States Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Bureau at the State Department, David Schenker, said Washington was investigating and trying to get to the bottom of reports that Khalifa Haftar’s plane was in the Venezuelan capital Caracas last week as part of an attempt to secure an oil deal.
Speaking at a teleconference, David Schenker said the allegations were concerning and added that US and United Nations sanctions applied to those exporting Libyan oil outside legal auspices of Libya’s National Oil Corporation.
An earlier report by the Wall Street Journal said that the US was not the only country investigating these reports, adding that Haftar had reached out to Venezuela, as well as to brokers in the United Arab Emirates in a bid to raise money for his militias through deals for the sale of crude oil.
Libyan, European, and US officials told the Wall Street Journal at the time that the reports had prompted the UN and the UN-recognized Libyan government to launch an investigation into a Dubai-based ship-chartering company for its alleged help to Haftar to sell Libyan crude in the Mediterranean.
