"Who stripped Al-Nazouri of its pillars? And where did the second man of Al-Rajma go?"
Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil of the Umayyad dynasty did not leave Damascus alone; he was accompanied by his servant, Badr, who faced all the dangerous stages with him while trying to escape the Abbasids. Badr was his messenger to the Umayyad loyalists in Al-Andalus, known today as Spain. After all these efforts, Badr expected to be honored, and indeed, Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil honored him after he managed to take complete control of Al-Andalus and establish his state. However, Badr started to believe that he was a partner in what al-Dakhil had achieved, leading him to become bold and advise al-Dakhil, who did not accept this, stripped him of all his positions, and exiled him outside Cordoba, the capital of Al-Andalus at the time.
Although this story is considered folkloric and there is no historical text to prove it, its content speaks a truth: tyrants hate nothing more than those who have done favors for them, making them feel incapable and inadequate at the same time.
No historian can overlook the pivotal role played by General Abd al-Razzaq al-Nadhouri in the Karama (Dignity) project, as he and Al-Marj were the first incubators of the operation. He contributed to all its stages without pause until it gained control over Cyrenaica and Fezzan today. Many observers now consider him the cloak that General Haftar used to be accepted in Cyrenaica as its leader, given that everyone knows General Haftar belongs to the Farjan tribe, which resides in the western part of Libya. Thus, General Abd al-Razzaq al-Nadhouri played a crucial role in this context.
General Abd al-Razzaq al-Nadhouri was appointed Chief of Staff and became a significant weight in the Rajma camp until the "Family Project" emerged in Cyrenaica, where Saddam Haftar and Khalid Haftar, the sons of General Haftar, began preparing their brigades, which have become a force within the Rajma force itself. The ambition did not stop there, as Saddam Haftar took advantage of the rift between General al-Nadhouri and General Haftar over the refusal of the former to wage war on Tripoli, which he did not participate in even with a single word, to ask his father to appoint him Chief of Staff in place of al-Nadhouri.
General Haftar knew well that such a move could affect the confidence of the Cyrenaican Security Council, represented by the major tribes with veto power (Al-Obaidat, Baraasa, Awagir, Magharba, Zway), and at the same time, wanted to strip General al-Nadhouri of his power, as some see it. Therefore, he established the Land Operations Administration for Brigadier Saddam Haftar, which included all the ground military brigades stretching from Benghazi to Tobruk, excluding the Al-Marj military brigade. He also established the Security Units Staff for Brigadier Khalid Haftar, which included the remaining military security agencies, tasked with taking over the Al-Marj brigade led by al-Nadhouri's son, as the final step in stripping General al-Nadhouri of all his military power.
Many observers believe that al-Nadhouri's absence was deliberate, as he did not even respond to the invitation he and General Mohammed al-Haddad received to attend a military exhibition in Saudi Arabia, where al-Haddad appeared and al-Nadhouri was absent. He no longer appears in any military maneuvers that occur from time to time, raising an important question:
How can a Chief of Staff be absent from a display or military maneuver of his forces?
The major tribes that have veto power are still restless from the actions of General Haftar's sons, which still enhances General al-Nadhouri's position in the Rajma in case of General Haftar's sudden absence, because the nightmare that all those tribes fear is for Brigadier Saddam Haftar to inherit General Haftar's legacy. It seems that the Cyrenaican tribes have declared this on more than one occasion, most recently in Al-Abraq area, where one of the Al-Obaidat sheikhs mentioned that we accept orders from the general as the leader of Cyrenaica's redemption saga, but what we accept from him, we do not accept from his sons.
History tells us that leadership in Cyrenaica generally belongs to those from the smaller tribes, where the conflict among the veto-holding tribes (the five major tribes mentioned earlier) is less, and consensus around them is faster. Since General al-Nadhouri belongs to the Al-Arfah tribe, which resides in Al-Marj city and is not among the large tribes, he will have the support, acceptance, and be the better choice for the Cyrenaican tribes to lead the Rajma after General Haftar's sudden disappearance.
attempts to hide General al-Nadhouri from the military and political scene today will only increase his popularity, amid the practices of the two brigadiers within Cyrenaica, who lack the general's wisdom and tact in dealing with the popular base. They derived their existence from military power, and military power does not triumph over the popular base in a direct confrontation.
While Badr, the servant of Abd al-Rahman al-Dakhil, may be a mythical figure, General al-Nadhouri is a real person. Time will tell how the final scene of al-Nadhouri's journey will unfold, just as we learned the end of Badr, the servant.