Libya's Ogab commends Egypt’s role in unifying army factions

CAIRO – 2 May 2018: Former General National Congress (GNC) member and Deputy Head of Libya’s High Council of State, Fawzi Rajab Al-Ogab, praised in a Wednesday press statement Egypt’s role in unifying the military factions.

Ogab described the meetings conducted by the Egyptian side as transparent and emphasizes the depth of relations between Egypt and Libya.

Egypt has hosted several meetings to bring the Libyan conflicted factions to the negotiations table, alongside members of Tobruk’s House of Representatives, to resolve the Libyan crisis and amend the Skhirat agreement, which aims at ending Libya’s civil war.

In December 2016, Cairo hosted a conference attended by Libyan officials and representatives from the country’s numerous factions, where they issued five proposed amendments to the agreement. The conference concluded with a decision to amend the eighth article of the Skhirat agreement that outlined the jurisdiction of the Libyan army chief commander.

Negotiations to unify the Libyan military were held as a part of Egypt’s initiative that kicked off in July 2017 to unify the military institutions.

The first meeting aimed at creating a framework for the initiative while the second and third meetings were held in Cairo from Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, 2017, to follow up on the results of the first meeting.

Ogab also condemned the terrorist attack that targeted the head offices of Libya's electoral commission in Tripoli on Wednesday, which killed at least seven people.

Libya, which is struggling to get through the critical political situation that it has been experiencing since 2011, is not only trying to unify its army, but is longing to revive its political functions by conducting presidential and legislative elections by mid-2018.