03 Jan 2019; MEMO: The Egyptian National Action Group (ENAG) has condemned attempts of the Egyptian regime, under Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to involve the Egyptian army into the ongoing battles in Libya, according to a statement released by the group.
The statement explains that the ruling regime in Egypt has been pushing for such military interventions for years, “in favour of a rogue putschist group that has moved in violation of legitimacy, fighting against the legitimate government that has been produced by the Skhirat Agreement, sponsored by the United Nations and recognised by the whole world, including Egypt.”
It goes on: “The Egyptians feel ashamed when they see their army fighting alongside a rogue putschist group, Russian mercenaries, and others; directing their weapons at their Libyan brothers, military and civilian. On the other hand, dozens of Egyptian officers and soldiers, claimed by army commanders to be killed in Sinai, are in fact killed in Libya, a truth that everyone in Egypt knows.”
The statement explains that, in the view of the group, previous interventions, including those carried out by other countries such as France, Russia and the UAE, have left Libya’s fate to be determined by the Libyans themselves. It goes on to make a comparison with Syria, which “poses a significant threat to the Egyptian national security, mainly caused by the current Egyptian political system use of our armed forces and exploitation of our children”, the statement reads.
The ENAG, also condemned “the disgraceful position of the Arab League which has become a tool in the hands of a small group of its member-states that always take stances against the interest of the Arab peoples. Although the Arab League had remained silent for years on the other external interventions that have been supporting Libyan putschists, which aggravated the situation in Libya, opened the way for more civil wars and bloodshed, and brought Libya to the brink of partition, it has suddenly shown such immediate response.”
The statement concludes: “The various Egyptian political forces that have formed the Egyptian National Action Group strongly reject such practices, and refuse the al-Sisi regime attempt to turn the Egyptian armed forces into a group of mercenaries fighting outside Egypt’s borders in ill-calculated adventures, which reminds us of the painful memories of the consequences of the Egyptian army’s intervention in Yemen (1962) and the subsequent defeat of 1967. We call on the commanders of the Egyptian army to immediately stop these practices to avoid endangering our national security as well as the lives of our officers and soldiers and to focus only on the army’s role in protecting Egypt and the integrity of its territory.”
