Libya pro-Haftar tribal leaders to meet with Egypt’s Sisi in Cairo

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi will meet with Libyan tribal leaders to discuss ways for supporting the eastern-based renegade General Khalifa Haftar.

The Supreme Council of Libyan Sheikhs and Elders said on its Facebook page that a delegation from the council was scheduled to visit Cairo to meet Al-Sisi today.

The visit was also announced in Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA), which quoted the Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Radi as saying that the meeting bears the motto, “Egypt and Libya… one people, same destiny.”

The meeting comes one day after the Tobruk-based, pro-Haftar House of Representatives officially asked for Egyptian military intervention against the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA), which is based in Tripoli.

READ: Libya’s Eastern parliament asks Egypt military to intervene

In the past weeks, forces loyal to the GNA have repelled a year-long offensive on Tripoli led by Haftar and his Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA).

According to the deputy head of the Supreme Council of Libyan Sheikhs and Elders, Sheikh Al-Senussi Al-Heliq, the delegation comprises 50 members and it will reiterate the House of Representatives’ call on Egypt to intervene militarily in support of Haftar and forces loyal to him.

Egypt, along with the UAE and Russia, backs Haftar against the internationally-recognised GNA, which is backed by Turkey and Qatar.