January 28, 2023The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar played an active role in the military campaign to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi back in 2011. Following the overthrow of Gadhafi, the Qatari-Emirati rivalry in Libya went through phases of competing aggressive policies inside Libya. Notably, Qatar and the UAE have adopted two very different approaches to the kind of alliances they sought to build in Libya. While Qatar developed alliances with Islamist and hard-line revolutionary currents, the UAE developed alliances with nationalist and non-Islamist leaning currents. Islamists vs. nationalistsBetween 2011-2014, Qatar had the upper hand in Libya with its allies and proxies spread across the country through military and political alliances.
