Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry headed to Tunisia on Sunday in order to attend a meeting with his Tunisian and Algerian counterparts to prepare for a trilateral summit for an initiative raised by the Tunisian president, Beji Caid Essebsi, regarding the Libyan crisis, according to state-run media outlet Egy News.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abou Zaid noted that the Libyan situation is on the top of the policy priorities of Egypt’s foreign affairs ministry and he added that Egypt supports the anti-terrorism efforts in Libya and supports the political path to resolve the crisis.
As a proof for Egypt’s stance regarding the Libyan situation, Abou Zaid referred to Shoukry’s meetings with the head of the United Nations support mission in Libya, Martin Kobler, and the Arab League envoy to Libya, ambassador Salah El-Din Al-Jamaly.
Shoukry is scheduled to review the latest developments on the Libyan scene, as well as the results of the meetings that took place recently in Cairo with the aforementioned Libyan figures to resolve the crisis in their country.
Shoukry is also scheduled to visit the US capital of Washington DC on Saturday to meet with US secretary of state Rex Tillerson and other leaders of the new US administration.
Abou Zaid said that the US side is eager to listen to the Egyptian point of view on different counter-terrorism issues and to discuss the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Palestine.
Egypt is scheduled to participate in the anti-terrorism conference in London during March, where Egypt is planning to introduce a new perspective for ways to counter the Islamic State (IS), Abou Zaid added.
Shoukry’s US visit will last for two days and will mainly focus on bilateral relations between both countries and ways to advance them. It will be Shoukry’s first meeting with Tillerson since the latter’s appointment to the position in early February.
The visit comes as a response to a previous invitation by Tillerson to Shoukry during a phone call that took place last week.
