Libyan General Khalifa Haftar says to run for president

Libyan National Army commander Khalifa Haftar will run in Libya’s presidential elections due next month, he announced in a televised speech on Tuesday.

“Elections are the only way out of the severe crisis that our country has plunged into,” said Haftar, who was expected to formally register later Tuesday at the election center in Benghazi.

Haftar waged a war on factions in the west after the country split in 2014, including a 14-month offensive to capture Tripoli which was repelled by the internationally recognized government.

Haftar’s decision to run will anger many in Tripoli and western regions who say no vote in areas he holds can be fair.

The election is meant as a milestone in the political process to knit Libya back together after a decade of chaos that spiraled out of the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

However, with no clear agreement on the legal basis for the election, major factions may reject the vote