Egypt reopens embassy in Tripoli after a 12-year hiatus

Detailed summary

Egypt has reopened its embassy in Libya's ​capital ​Tripoli after a ⁠12-year absence, a significant step in the mending of ties between Cairo and the neighbouring country's…

Egypt has reopened its embassy in Libya's ​capital ​Tripoli after a ⁠12-year absence, a significant step in the mending of ties between Cairo and the neighbouring country's western-based administration.

Egypt has been one of the most prominent backers ⁠of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the power behind an administration in the east that is a rival ​to ⁠the Tripoli-based government.

However, relations between Cairo and the eastern administration have recently soured after the eastern parliament last month ratified a 2019 maritime demarcation agreement with Turkey that Egypt and its ally Greece regard as a breach of international law. The agreement was initially reached between Ankara and Libya's western administration.

Egypt closed its Tripoli embassy in ​2014, when many foreign missions withdrew amid an escalating conflict that saw the rival governments established in the vast, oil-rich North African country.

Egypt's Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, was quoted as saying the reopening of the embassy "aligns with the deep-rooted human and cultural ties that ​characterize Egyptian-Libyan relations".

Libya has been ⁠plunged into chaos since ​the fall of Muammar Qaddafi's regime during a Nato-backed ‌uprising in 2011, with the rival governments in the east and west often at loggerheads or locked in open hostilities.

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