Egypt Will Not Backtrack on Support for Haftar Army in Libya - President

CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2019) Cairo will not withdraw its support for Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army (LNA), seeing it as the only force that could ensure the neighboring country's unity and free it of terrorists in the future, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi has said at a meeting with foreign journalists in the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh.

On Monday, the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), which sits in Tripoli, demanded that Egypt stop supporting Haftar, "reconsider its position on the Libyan crisis and start playing a positive role."

"There is a difference between negative interference and support for the Libyan National Army. We will not abandon it [the support], this has been the position of Egypt for five years," Sisi said.

According to the president, only the LNA had the capability to responsibly ensure the preservation and unity of the Libyan state.

"We have said that we stand for a national state, not for a country of armed and extremist groups, terrorists," he added.

Libya has been torn apart between the two rival administrations since 2011, when its long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed. The eastern part of the country is now governed by the parliament, backed by the LNA and located in Tobruk. The UN-backed GNA, headed by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, operates in the country's west and is headquartered in Tripoli.

The situation in Libya deteriorated in April when the LNA began an offensive on Tripoli, prompting the GNA to start a counteroperation.