Egypt's President orders army to be ready for missions abroad - Africa News
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Egypt’s President orders army to be ready for missions abroad

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Egypt’s President orders army to be ready for missions abroad

Yesterday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has ordered his army to be ready to carry out any mission inside or outside the country to protect its national security amid tensions over Turkey’s intervention in neighbouring Libya.
He also warned forces loyal to the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli not to cross the current front line with renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).
Turkey supports the GNA, which, with Turkish support, has reversed a 14-month assault on the capital by the LNA.
The LNA is backed by Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
El-Sisi on Saturday toured an airbase near Egypt’s 1,200km-long (746 miles) western border with Libya, where 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 air force pilots and special forces personnel at the base.
He said the Egyptian army was “one of the strongest in the region”, adding: “It is a rational army; an army that protects and does not threaten … this is our strategy, our beliefs and our principles that we will never change.”
He also said Egypt did not want to intervene in Libya and generally favoured a political solution, but added that “the situation now is different”.
“If some people think that they can cross the Sirte-Jufra front line, this is a red line for us,” he said before an audience that included some Libyan tribal leaders.
“If the Libyan people moved through you and asked us to intervene, this would be a signal to the world that Egypt and Libya are one country, one interest,” he said as Africa-News reports.

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