Egypt’s Sisi gets mandate for sending troops to Libya
The vote in parliament Monday comes a week after allied Libyan lawmakers gave Egypt the greenlight to intervene.
Egypt’s parliament on Monday approved the deployment of troops abroad, giving President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the greenlight to militarily intervene in Libya’s chaotic civil war.
The House of Representatives "unanimously approved to send elements of the Egyptian Armed Forces in combat missions outside the borders of the Egyptian state to defend the Egyptian national security in the western strategic direction," read a parliament statement quoted by Ahram Online following the closed-door session.
Egypt, along with the United Arab Emirates and Russia, has backed renegade commander Khalifa Hifter in Libya’s six-year-long civil war. Turkey, which supports the rival UN-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli, has condemned Egypt’s role in the conflict as “illegal.”
The vote in Egypt’s parliament Monday comes a week after Libyan lawmakers allied with Hifter’s forces called on Egyptian troops to intervene “if they see an imminent danger” to the national security of both countries.
