Egypt’s General Intelligence Service (GIS) Chief Abbas Kamel met, on Tuesday, with the US Ambassadors in Egypt and Libya, Jonathan Cohen and Richard Norland, respectively, to discuss the latest updates regarding the Libyan crisis.
Kamel and the two ambassadors discussed ways to accelerate a political solution to the crisis, resume oil production, and ensure equal distribution of oil revenues among Libya’s two ruling sides. This came in addition to discussions on unifying state institutions, as well as Egypt’s continuing efforts to resolve the Libyan crisis. The latter most recently included hosting rival Libyan military and security officials for talks in the Red Sea city of Hurghada last week.
“While in Cairo, Ambassador Cohen and I had productive consultations with the head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service on how to support the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum and genuine de-escalation in Libya,” Norland wrote on Twitter.
Earlier on Monday, Ambassador Norland met with Libya’s Parliamentary Speaker, Aguila Saleh during the latter’s short visit to Cairo.
On Sunday, Norland published a photo on Twitter with the head of Egypt’s Military Intelligence, Major General Khaled Megawer. He wrote, “I’m continuing consultations with a stop in Cairo. Here, I’ll express thanks to Egypt for hosting the successful Hurghada talks on security in Libya, and we will exchange views on how best to support the upcoming Libyan Political Dialogue Forum.”
Norland also “applauded all Libyan figures willing to support the UN-facilitated Libyan political dialogue.”
Military and security delegations representing the two rival Libyan parties arrived in Cairo last week in Hurghada for high-level talks. The talks, which is under the auspices of the UN’s Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) aimed to make recommendations to the 5+5 Joint Military Commission, which is expected to resume its meetings in Geneva in the coming weeks.
The top-level meeting, the first to take place in five years, included military and security officials from the Eastern-based Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) and the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
Officials discussed the formation of a joint military committee to safeguard Sirte, which is expected to become the headquarters of the new presidential council and Libya’s “oil crescent” area. The committee will also work towards removing mercenaries and militias, whilst also providing methods of maintaining the current ceasefire.
In the meantime, the second round of political negotiations over Libya concluded on Monday in Morocco.
The Libyan arena has, in recent weeks, witnessed rapid developments, most importantly the resumption of the country’s oil production and export, and GNA head Fayez Al-Sarraj’s recent announcement of his intention to resign by the end of October.
In August, Saleh and Al-Sarraj announced in two separate statements that they had agreed on a Libya-wide ceasefire.
As part of Egyptian efforts to help in resolving the long-time crisis, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi announced a new initiative in early June, which has been called the “Cairo Declaration”, to support a political solution to the Libyan conflict.
