Haftar’s plane flies from Cyprus to Israel

Reports over the weekend said a plane belonging to Libyan warlord and presidential candidate Khalifa Haftar landed in Israel last week after a quick "diplomatic stop" in Cyprus.

According to a military correspondent in Israel, Itay Blumental, a private jet took off from Libya on Thursday and landed in the Republic of Cyprus.

“The executive plane (P4-RMA) used by the Libyan general Khalifa Hefter landed in Israel yesterday after a ‘diplomatic stop’ in Cyprus,” Blumental wrote Friday on Twitter.

It was not clear whether Haftar himself was on the plane.

Back in November Israeli media reported that Haftar’s son had met with Israeli intelligence officials, suggesting he travelled on a French-made Dassault Falcon with registration P4-RMA that took off from Dubai and landed at Ben Gurion Airport.

Friday’s trip to Israel was reportedly short, with the military correspondent saying the plane landed briefly in Cyprus before heading to Tel Aviv, where it remained for two hours before flying back to the island.

Reports late last year speculated that Haftar's son Saddam had touched down in Tel Aviv in November amid reports about the possibility of his presidential hopeful father promising an agreement to recognize Israel after the presidential election.

Libya missed a December deadline to elect its first president since the 2011 ouster and killing of Muammar Gaddafi. United Nations on Monday said Libya could hold elections by June 2022.

Last November Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades was given a seat at a Libya conference in Paris, following an invitation by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Anastasiades’ seat represented the east Mediterranean island’s first time ever to officially state its views on the war-torn country proxied by power struggles in the region.