Libyan National Army led by Hifter hires US lobbying firm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The self-styled Libyan National Army led by Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter has hired a lobbying firm to assist it in forging better relations with the U.S. government.

A foreign agent registration posted Tuesday on the Justice Department’s website shows the Houston-based Linden Government Solutions is to paid about $2 million over the one-year term of the deal.

Civil war in Libya in 2011 toppled and later killed dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and the chaos that followed resulted in a divided country, with a weak U.N.-supported administration in Tripoli overseeing the country’s west and a government in the east aligned with Hifter.

President Donald Trump spoke last month with Hifter. A subsequent White House statement said “the two discussed a shared vision for Libya’s transition to a stable, democratic political system.”