The Libyan Speaker of Parliament (HoR), Ageela Saleh, expressed his welcome to the Egyptian stance towards the Libyan crisis, praising the speech of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Saturday in which he announced his support to the Libyan people’s battle against terrorism, armed militias and mercenaries.
In a statement published on Sunday, Saleh called on the international community and the UN Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to activate the outputs of the Berlin conference and listen to the voice of peace and reconciliation presented in the “Cairo Declaration”.
Addressing the Libyan people, Saleh said that Egypt and its wise leadership sought to reach a political solution to the conflict in Libya and achieve a Libyan-Libyan agreement, pointing out that Egypt has dealt with all the Libyan parties without any bias and sought to preserve the integrity, unity, security and stability of Libya. Saleh described how Egypt pursued that goal through the hosting of many talks and meetings on both civil and military levels to bring all different parties’ views together, in addition to its participation in the Berlin conference and support of its outputs which can be found in the recent “Cairo Declaration”. The latter declaration seeks a ceasefire and the activation of a political process in Libya.
Saleh confirmed that Egypt’s role during the different stages of the Libyan crisis, was not incited by rivalry, fighting or the deepening of divisions between Libyans, or neglecting the decisions issued by the Security Council “despite its contradictions with Egypt’s convictions, including the so-called legitimacy of the expired non-accredited presidential council”, as Egypt knows the reasons and impacts of the crisis on its national security, and the security of its people who were slaughtered with cold blood and abused by the terrorist groups and armed militias and gangs.
“When ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Ansar al-Sharia organisations were controlling the cities of Barqa (Benghazi, Derna and Sirte), they publicly announced that they targetted the Egyptian state, people and army with their terrorist operations by crossing the borders to undermine the security of Egypt and the safety of its people and army more than once” the statement said.
The statement pointed out that these terrorist groups and armed militias and gangs see the geographic neighborhood between Libya and Egypt as a pathway for their plans and operations, which were eradicated by the Libyan National Army.
“It has been proven by solid evidence that the leaders and elements of terrorist groups that took over Benghazi and Derna before their liberation, and which control the territory of Tripoli today, were involved in the smuggling of arms and terrorists, and have carried out operations in Egypt’s strategic depth, thus threatening its sovereignty, security and security of its people” the statement continued.
“The speech of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi came with honesty and courage to return a long history of brotherhood and struggle between the two peoples,” Saleh added, noting that “one day the occupier decided to construct a wall of barbed wire to prevent the flow of Egypt’s support to the fighters and prohibit their movement between both countries, and he failed to do that”.
“The Libyan social extension in Egypt and the constant brotherly positions over time affirmed that we are one people in two countries, what afflicts Egypt afflicts us and what afflicts us afflicts Egypt, and whoever wants to cross into Egypt with the intention of assault needs to annihilate a people and an army that we are proud that Egypt contributed to its establishment and supported with all that it has in combating the terrorists” the statement added.
The HoR Speaker concluded that Libya is passing through a dangerous turning point, that needs the unification of positions to overcome the obstacles and disputes, and cut the way to foreign ambitions, and stop the dangers of foreign military intervention that aims to loot the country’s wealth and undermine the country’s unity, security and territorial integrity.