On Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi stressed that he called for a comprehensive settlement on Libya, noting that any direct Egyptian intervention has become legitimate in line with UNSC resolutions as the country will not allow any threat to the security of its western borders.
El-Sisi ordered the Egyptian army to prepare itself for any operation inside or outside the country to protect its national security, amid tensions over Turkey’s interference in neighbouring Libya.
He said the Egyptian army was “one of the strongest in the region”. “It is a rational army; an army that protects and does not threaten…this is our strategy, our beliefs and our principles that we will never change.”
The president underlined the outcomes of the Berlin Conference held in January, stating that all foreign powers shall refrain from supplying arms to Libyan armed groups.
“If Egypt had illegitimate goals in Libya, we would have intervened years ago. Egypt supports a political solution but the situation is now different…Jufrah and Sirte are a red line…The current line must be maintained. The party which does not respect it, will attain neither the west nor the east. The political process must go forward,” the president has told a representative of Libyan tribes.
The president warned in his speech in Sidi Barani district, situated in the Matrouh Governorate bordering Libya, against the foreign intervention in Libya for it composes a threat to regional, European, and global security and stability.
The president called for the withdrawal of mercenaries from Libya, and stressed the need for militias to give up their arms to the Libyan National Army (LNA).