Egyptian military will not intervene in Libyan crisis, says foreign affairs minister

Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry held a press conference in Tunisia on Monday to address the mounting crisis faced by Egyptian expatriates attempting to flee worsening violence in Libya.

According to Shoukry, to date 2,500 Egyptians have safely returned home from the strife-plagued country. 

The minister is in Tunisia to oversee the evacuation process. Thousands of Egyptians and migrant workers from other countries struggle to escape Libya as armed confrontations intensify between Islamist militias and forces loyal to the renegade former military general, Khalifa Haftar.

Many Egyptians are still stranded at the Ras Jadeer border crossing between Libya and Tunisia. The Ministry of Defense sent a shipment of food aid to those Egyptians still awaiting evacuation, according to a ministry statement issued Monday.

In the press conference, Shoukry refuted rumors that the Egyptian Armed Forces would intervene in Libya.

“There is no talk about an intervention by the Armed Forces in Libya. The Egyptian army is only tasked with protecting the borders of the Egyptian state,” Shoukry said.

Amr Moussa, the former head of the constitutional committee and former minister of foreign affairs, had said earlier that Libya’s deteriorating security situation could force Egypt to launch a military intervention.

In a statement released by his office, Moussa claimed that the situation in Libya is increasingly a cause for concern in Egypt and other neighboring countries, and Egypt might have to resort to self-defense measures in light of the often fatal attacks on Egyptians in Libya.

The growth of sectarian militia groups on the other side of the border threatens Egypt’s stability, Moussa continued, and poses a “direct threat to Egypt’s national security.” He called for a halt to all attacks on Egyptian expatriates.

Armed assailants killed 15 Egyptians on Thursday as they waited to pass through Ras Jadeer crossing into Tunisia, reported the privately owned newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm (AMAY).

Anonymous sources said the attackers were targeting Libyans attempting to hide among the thousands of Egyptian expatriates fleeing the country, according to AMAY.

Two other Egyptians died at the crossing on Thursday, reportedly due to overcrowding when some 15,000 Egyptian citizens tried to rush the border. However, other unconfirmed media reports claimed the victims were shot dead by Libyan security forces.

Rumors of a potential military intervention in the embattled North African country started as early as mid-May, when Haftar launched a military offensive against Ansar al-Sharia Islamist militias.

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in both Libya and Egypt claimed that the Egyptian Air Forces participated in the offensive after spotting military jets flying over Benghazi, but Benghazi-based activists confirmed to Mada Masr that these were unfounded rumors.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stirred heated debate when he recently asserted that the Egyptian military would intervene if any other Arab country came under threat.

In an interview with the privately owned satellite channel Sky News Arabia, Sisi said that Egypt’s army is a “mindful and wise” institution that protects, but does not threaten.

However, if a threat was posed against any other Arab country, it would only take Egypt’s Armed Forces “the distance required [to reach it]. No one shall be threatened while we are here,” the former field marshal declared.

“Egypt is back to its Arab brothers and its Arab role. We are together now,” Sisi added.

In another interview with the US-based channel Fox News, Sisi slammed the United States and NATO for abandoning Libya following the ouster of former President Muammar Qadhafi in 2011, blaming the foreign powers for the ensuing security vacuum that opened the door for “extremists, assassins and murderers” to take control of the country.

“History will judge you severely,” he warned.

Since former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster last summer, Sisi has been beating the rhetorical war drums against what he calls terrorist forces, launching an intensive military campaign against what are purported to be armed Islamist extremists in Sinai.

“The only thing they know is destruction,” Sisi said in the interview, as he discussed Islamist militants fighting in Syria and Libya. “Osama bin Laden was only the first.”

But Ziad Akl, a senior researcher on Libyan affairs at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, dismissed the possibility of direct Egyptian military intervention in Libya in an interview with Mada Masr.

Military intervention in countries that are “not institutionally sophisticated,” like Libya, is dangerous and very difficult, Akl contended, and such strategies are not as effective as they were in the past.