Egypt supports the role played by the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar to achieve stability and security in Libya, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said Tuesday.
This announcement came during Sisi’s meeting with French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly on the sidelines of the International Defense and Security Industry Exhibition “EDEX-2018,” held in Egypt Dec. 3-5.
Egypt’s role in the Libyan crisis
Egypt has made stabilizing Libya a priority and worked on reaching a diplomatic solution to Libyan crisis as it has a direct impact on Egyptian national security for being one of its neighboring countries.
Since Muammar Gaddafi’s ouster in 2011, Libya has spiraled into civil war between its political parties competing for the power and divisions inside its army.
There have been two major factions on the ground since 2014; one led by Haftar, commander of the LNA, who now controls the eastern side of Libya in cooperation with the government of the House of Representatives (HoR), also known as the Tobruk government.
The other is led by Faiez Sarraj, head of the UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord of the General National Congress (GNC).
Therefore, Egypt has supported all the initiatives to put an end to the civil war and the division of the power-broker between the east and west, including the Libyan Political Accord (LPA) signed in December 2015 in Skhirat, Morocco. The LPA aims to unify the executive authority and hold the legislative and presidential elections.
In the past two years, Egypt’s initiatives to resolve the crisis have been intensified to maintain the integrity of the political process to meet Libyans’ inspirations.
One landmark was the Cairo Declaration of February 2017, which laid out the framework for a political settlement process capable of ending the Libyan conflict.
It called for delegations from the HoR and the Tripoli-based High State Council, which advises both the HoR and the Presidency Council, to agree on reducing the members of Presidency Council to three rather than nine, expediting the approval of a new constitution and holding parliamentary and presidential elections in early 2018.
However, this declaration has not been put into action as Haftar refused to accept Sarraj’s suggestion for a three-person presidency council that will include the commander-in-chief (Haftar), head of the House of Representatives (Aqila Saleh) and head of the government (Sarraj). Haftar does not officially recognize Sarraj’s legitimacy.
Egypt has put pressure on Haftar to meet Sarraj and agree on a compromise that would bring the conflict in Libya to an end.
In May 2017, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) invited the Libyan rival leaders to meet in Abu Dhabi and discuss again the amendments to the 2015 Skhirat agreement.
The Abu Dhabi meeting reached a preliminary agreement to form a unified Presidency Council where the commander of the army and the heads of both the Libyan government and the House of Representatives would be members. They also agreed to form a unified Libyan army and dissolve all militant groups.
The latest support offered by Egypt was in November when President Sisi attended the Palermo Conference, in addition to delegations from Qatar, Morocco, Algeria, and Sudan.
Neighboring countries Niger and Chad also sent delegations to the conference.
U.N. envoy Ghassan Salame said Haftar had committed himself to a U.N. action plan and to holding a national conference early next year prior to elections.
