France will cooperate with Egypt to support Libya in its fight against terrorism and to facilitate national reconciliation, French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday.
“We have two objectives. The first is to fight against terrorism and to support all Libyan parties fighting effectively against terrorism, and the second is national reconciliation, the only solution to ensure the necessary stability,” Macron said during a joint press conference in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Macron emphasized the importance of cooperating with Ghassan Salame, head of United Nations Support Mission in Libya, to consolidate the reconciliation.
Over the last year, both France and Italy have played a role in Libyan politics as Paris Conference was held, and was followed a few months later by Palermo Conference in November.
However, some Libyans believe the European efforts have undermined rather than supported the UN-led peace initiative due to the Paris-Rome rivalry.
Italy’s new populist government has introduced anti-immigration measures that threaten to keep hundreds of thousands of migrants stranded in Libya.
Meanwhile, both countries have shares in Libya’s oil wealth, with Italy’s oil giant, ENI, importing about 25 percent of its oil and 10 percent of its gas from the North African state, while Total SA, the French equivalent of ENI, buys about 15 percent of Libyan oil.
