Pics: Libyan lawmakers visit Egypt’s House of Representatives

CAIRO – 13 July 2019: Egypt’s parliament received a Libyan parliamentarian delegation Saturday on the sidelines of the meetings to be held by the Egyptian National Committee on Libya in Cairo, to seek political consensus among Libyan parties.

The delegation met with Egyptian parliamentarians, visited the parliament's museum and stood for a group photo outside the Egyptian House of Representatives.

Since late Thursday, flocks of Libyan parliamentarians began to arrive for the Cairo-sponsored talks that aim to unify Libyan parliamentarians’ visions towards a political solution that will be adopted by the Libyan parliament.


Libyan parliamentarian delegation visits Egypt’s House of Representatives - Hazim Abdel Samad/Egypt Today

The committee meeting will be led by the head of the Arab Affairs committee in the Egyptian parliament Ahmed Raslan, member of the committee Saad el-Gamal, and member of Foreign Affairs committee Mohamed el-Oraby, who is also former Egyptian foreign minister.

The Libyan attendees represent geographically different political currents from east, south and west Libya.

The talks are set to last for one week, where the Libyan parliamentarians are scheduled to meet with Egyptian political leaders to reach a solution to exit the current political standoff in Libya, achieve stability and support Libyan institutions, atop of them the parliament and the Libyan National Army (LNA).


Libyan parliamentarian delegation visits Egypt’s House of Representatives - Hazim Abdel Samad/Egypt Today


Egypt is a leading a mediator in the Libyan crisis, seeking to achieve stability and unify the military of its western neighbor, which represents a strategic depth of Egypt’s national security.

Thus, Egypt has mediated talks between the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Khalifa Haftar and controls most of the Eastern Libya, and the Libyan troops of the internationally-recognized government led by Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord Fayez al-Sarraj.


Libyan parliamentarian delegation visits Egypt’s House of Representatives - Hazim Abdel Samad/Egypt Today

In August 2016, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi decided to create the National committee on Libyan affairs, led by the armed forces’ chief of staff Mahmoud Hijazi, aiming to hold talks between all Libyan sides.

Egypt aims its concerted efforts to unify the Libyan army would prompt the UN to lift the seven-year long UN arms embargo on the Libyan army.

Egypt has participated actively in all international and regional forums on Libyan affairs, stressing on the need to adhere to a set of principles to reach a solution, namely to respect unity, independence, territorial integrity and to reject any interference in the internal affairs of Libya.

With the aim to restore state authority and build Libyan institutions, Egypt is leading an international endeavour to put the issue of the reconstruction of Libya on the top of the international interest and work on effectively involving the international community and contributing positively to building the future of Libya.