Egypt and Turkey edged closer to the possibility of armed conflict this week over Libya, with both sides preparing for an impending battle over a key city.
Egypt’s obsequious parliament voted unanimously behind closed doors late Monday to authorise President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s proposed military intervention in support of renegade Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar. Mr Sisi on Monday reportedly spoke with United States President Donald Trump in a likely attempt to get Washington to convince Ankara to stand down.
Meanwhile, Turkey and its Libyan allies of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord positioned heavy weaponry and fighters along the battlefront near the city of Sirte, the central Libyan city that is the gateway to the country’s crucial eastern oil infrastructure.
Libya was plunged into conflict following the toppling of longtime ruler Muammer Gaddafi in 2011 in a Nato-backed war. Mr Haftar’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces and the GNA and its antecedents have been battling for control of the country for more than six years.
The battle over Sirte, the hometown of Gaddafi, is also shaping up as a confrontation between two axes in the Middle East. On the one side are the authoritarian regimes of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, backed by Russia and France, who support Hafar’s Libyan Armed Armed Forces. On the other are populist Islamist-leaning governments in Turkey, Qatar and Libya’s Tripoli.
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