Egypt denies inviting Libya's Muslim Brotherhood to conference

Egypt denied media reports claiming it has invited Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood to attend a conference of Libyan tribes it’s hosting.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ambassador Badr Abdel Atti said media reports claiming his country has invited Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Dawn of Libya Brigades, the Tripoli-based General National Conference and the Islamist Brigades of February 17 to attend the conference are “completely false”.

“We did not invite political groups or militias,” Abdel Atti said in a statement.

“The ministry only invited representatives of Libyan tribes,” he added.

Abdel Atti said his ministry has “invited tribes from across Libya to this conference due to their crucial role in maintaining Libya’s unity and their potential influence in bringing Libyan groups to a political settlement.”

He said Cairo was hosting the second conference for over 300 Libyan tribal leaders to discuss the means of reaching a peaceful settlement in the crisis-hit country after the success of the first conference in October last year.

He noted that his country plays only an organisational role and will not interfere in the conference’s agenda, objectives or outputs.

Abdel Atti’s statement came in response to a report by state-run Al-Ahram newspaper on Sunday which revealed that Egypt’s foreign ministry had invited members of Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood, along with representatives of militias loyal to Libya’s Tripoli-based, Islamist-led parliament.

The conference started yesterday and will continue until Thursday.