Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pledged his support for Libya’s newly elected government during a meeting in Cairo Thursday with the interim prime minister, Abdulhamid Dbeibeh.
During UN-facilitated talks in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this month, a group of Libyan delegates elected Dbeibeh as their next prime minister and named a three-member presidential council. Dbeibeh, a prominent Misrata-based businessman, will steer the war-battered country until general elections are held in December.
Egypt, along with the United Arab Emirates and Russia, has backed renegade commander Khalifa Hifter in Libya’s civil war. Sisi views the fighting between Hifter’s forces and the internationally recognized Government of National Accord as a security threat to Egypt, which shares a 746-mile border with Libya.
In a statement, Sisi voiced “Egypt’s full readiness to provide all its expertise and experience … in a way that contributes to putting Libya on the right track and preparing the country to move toward horizons of construction, development and stability.”
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