The Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA) hosted Mr. Mohammed Al-Dairi, former Libyan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, on January 15, 2020, to talk about developments of the Libyan crisis. The seminar was opened by His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Mounir Zahran, Chairman of the Council; with the participation of His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad, Director of the Council; and Their Excellencies Ambassadors: Ihab Wahba, Yousef El-Sharkawy, Nevine Semeika, Adel Al-Salousi, Mohamed Al-Ashmawy, Sayed Abu Zeid, Mohamed Badr El-Din Zayed, Mohamed El-Nakli, Farouk Mabrouk, Mohamed Mustafa Kamal, Hazem AtiyatAllah, and Dr. Yousry Abushady.

His Excellency the Minister pointed out at the outset of his speech that there exists a strong historical relationship between Libya and Egypt, and that the bonds of friendship and brotherhood are extremely great between the peoples of the two countries. Speaking about the Libyan crisis, he mentioned that it is a highly complex issue, due to engagement of several regional and international powers having different interests, not to mention the inter-parties conflict among the Libyan parties themselves. The discussion touched upon reviewing the security, political, economic and international scenes in Libya.

 His Excellency the Minister pointed out at the outset that Qatar and Turkey have the upper hand in what is happening in Libya, and that they have used the Libyan territories to train mercenaries and armed militias (“irregular” armed forces) to achieve their own ends in a number of states in the region, adding that these armed militias include:

Firstly: The terrorist elements that were present in Afghanistan, which had assassinated General Abdel Fatah Younis in July 2011, and which include Ansar al-Sharia group that attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, as well as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) that had emerged from bin Laden’s al-Qaeda group in 2008, and has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council.

Secondly: These militias include purely criminal groups. The constitution of such militias was helped by the criminal elements that had been launched by Gaddafi in February 2011 and which had carried out systematic operations during the period from 2012 to 2014 to assassinate nearly 600 officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers in the city of Benghazi. The international aspect of the Libyan crisis indicates the existence of a lack of consensus among some Arab and European countries on the settlement of the crisis, of which special mention may be made of the fierce competition between France and Italy in this regard. Pointing out that the blatant Turkish intervention in Libyan affairs, through the agreement concluded between Erdogan and Al-Sarraj in late November 2019, will have dire consequences that would be manifested in more and more escalation and provocation of the situation in the region.