https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e...arns-r0dh6fm09
Egyptian troops ready to join Libyan war, Sisi warns
President Sisi has told the Egyptian army and air force to prepare to join the civil war in neighbouring Libya, amid rising tensions over Turkey’s recent intervention in the conflict.
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi instructed his military to be ready to carry out missions “inside or outside our borders” in support of rebel forces in eastern Libya. He warned forces loyal to the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli not to cross the front line near the coastal city of Sirte, which separates them and the renegade commander Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army.
The GNA reacted angrily to his comments, accusing him of “beating the drums of war”.
Turkey’s military involvement has helped to shift momentum, allowing GNA forces to reverse a 14-month assault on Tripoli by troops loyal to Marshal Haftar, who is backed by Russia and the United Arab Emirates as well as Egypt. Mr Sisi’s intervention comes after the
Tripoli government rejected a potential ceasefire and the proposal of a new “elected national council” that had been backed by Cairo earlier this month.
The president said Egypt did not want to intervene in Libya and generally favoured a political solution but added that “the situation now is different”. He spoke while visiting an air base near the border with Libya. State television showed him watching fighter jets and helicopters taking off.
“Be prepared to carry out any mission, here inside our borders — or if necessary, outside our borders,” he told pilots and special forces personnel, before boasting that the Egyptian army was “one of the strongest in the region”.
He claimed that Egypt had the right to defend itself after receiving “direct threats” from “terrorist militias and mercenaries”. However, Brigadier Abdul Hadi Dara, a military spokesman for the GNA, said: “Sisi’s statements are a blatant interference in our country’s affairs, and we consider it a clear declaration of war against Libya.”