Egypt’s minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry, underlined the importance that the Libyan Parliament is the only representative of the Libyan people and the formation of a government of national unity in Libya must be authorised by parliament as soon as possible.
Shoukry participated in a meeting at the Munich security conference on the situation in Libya in which he said forming this government is the first step to fighting terrorism in Libya, which will help achieve more stability in the region.
The meeting also included foreign ministries of the US, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, EU, head of Tobruk Parliament Aqeela Saleh, and UN envoy to Libya Martin Kobler.
Shoukry later discussed the latest developments in Libya with Salah andEgypt’s support of the political process in its neighbouring country. Saleh and Kobler discussed strategies to accelerate the process of forming the national unity government.
Kobler said on his Twitter account that he shares the same objectives with Saleh: “We need a quick solution to form a government in Tripoli.”
Head of the Libyan presidential council Fayez El-Sarag, responsible for forming the government, was supposed to travel to Munich but was prevented from travelling in favour of a consultation for the government formation.
The presidential council is still trying to form a government of national unity after the first proposal was refused by Tobruk Parliament earlier in 2016.
The spread of terrorism in Libya has concerned several foreign powers, especially after oil facilities were attacked. US media reports said in January that the White House is reviewing plans for military intervention in the oil-rich country.
Under the latent threat of military intervention, some “Islamic State” (IS) fighters in Libya are moving south, threatening countries like Chad and Niger, according to officials.
“IS is moving towards southern Libya to avoid the possible air strikes from the European coalition,” said Colonel Mahamane Laminou Sani, director of documentation and military intelligence for Niger’s armed forces. “If something like that happens, the entire Sahel will be affected.”
The US has its own military bases in some African countries.
Niger is already facing threats from Nigeria based militant group Boku Haram, which pledged allegiance to IS.
