By Libya Herald staff.
Tripoli, 26 February 2015:
Prime Minister Abdullah Al-Thinni has stopped in Cairo while on his way to Russia to . . .[restrict]offer his condolences for the savage murder of 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were beheaded on Libyan soil by the Islamic State. He also held further talks on Egypt and Libya’s joint war against terrorist elements in Libya.
Thinni, who was accompanied by a high-level delegation that included Minister of Education Fathi Abdelazim, Minister of Justice Mabruk Igrira and Ministry of Interior undersecretary Ahmed Baraka, praised its eastern neighbour for its support in the conflict.
The Prime Minister admitted that Libya’s security situation impacted that of Egypt and said that he welcomed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s call for a unified Arab force to confront terrorism.
Egypt affirmed its support of Libya, stressing that it backed the legitimate government in Beida and looked forward to the day when Libya was a strong, unified country.
Terrorism threatens the Arab world as a whole, Egypt said, again calling on Libyan factions to lay aside their differences and unite against the terrorist elements that seek to bring further instability.
Thinni will head to Russia this weekend for anti-terrorism talks there.
Moscow has said that it is in favour of lifting the ban on weapon supplies to Libya, though Russia’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin has expressed some concern that even legal arms supplies to the Libyan government could trigger the spread of weapons throughout Libya and the entire region.
Churkin went on to say that Russia could certainly play a role in an international anti-terrorist coalition in Libya, particularly in securing a naval blockade of Libyan waters to prevent the delivery of weapons to Islamic radicals, as was proposed to the United Nations by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. [/restrict]
