Trump's Africa adviser denies Libya plan would entrench rival families

Interview

Elizabeth Hagedorn

US Department of State's senior advisor to the President for Arab and African Affairs Massad Fares Boulos attends a conference for the support of peace and prosperity in the Great Lakes region, in Paris, on October 30, 2025. The international community gathered in Paris on October 30, 2025 to raise awareness about the dire humanitarian situation in the Great Lakes region, aiming to raise hundreds of millions of euros despite a drastic decrease in international aid, particularly from the United States. (Phot — US Department of State's senior advisor to the President for Arab and African Affairs Massad Fares Boulos attends a conference for the support of peace and prosperity in the Great Lakes region, in Paris, on October 30, 2025. — ALAIN JOCARD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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NEW YORK — As Libya struggles to emerge from years of civil war and political paralysis, President Donald Trump’s point person for Africa is dismissing criticism that an American plan to unify the country would entrench the unelected rule of two rival families.

“We've seen this wrong and inaccurate characterization of the truth,” the Trump administration’s senior adviser for Africa, Massad Boulos, said in an interview with Al-Monitor on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly summit in New York on Thursday.

However, Boulos declined to confirm details of the widely reported US-led initiative aimed at unifying Libya’s two governments ahead of eventual elections.