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By Staff, Agencies The Egyptian parliament is to vote Monday to authorize the country’s president to deploy troops to neighboring Libya if Turkish-backed forces there, allied with the UN-supported government in Tripoli, move to retake the strategic coastal city of Sirte. However, an Egyptian intervention would further destabilize the oil-rich Libya and put two US allies - Turkey and Egypt - in possible direct confrontation.

The vote was initially scheduled for Sunday but was moved to Monday in a closed session, according to lawmaker Mustafa Bakry.

The House of Representative, packed with supporters of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, is highly likely to vote in favor of sending troops to Libya.

Libya was plunged into chaos when a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi who was later killed.

The country is now split between a government in the east, allied with military commander Khalifa Haftar, and one in Tripoli, in the west, supported by the United Nations.

The conflict has escalated into a regional proxy war fueled by foreign powers pouring weapons and mercenaries into the country.

Egypt has been backing the eastern-based Libyan forces in the conflict while Turkey backs the forces in the capital, Tripoli, in the west.

Sissi warned in June that any attack on Sirte or the inland Jufra air would prompt Cairo to intervene militarily, allegedly to protect its western border with Libya

Original Article Source: Al Ahed News | Published on Monday, 20 July 2020 10:12 (about 1346 days ago)