Egypt army chief, NATO official compare notes on Libya

By Mohamed Mahmoud

CAIRO (AA) - Egyptian Army Chief-of-Staff Mahmoud Hegazy on Monday briefed Peter Pavel, chairman of NATO’s military committee, on regional developments with an emphasis on recent events in Libya, an Egyptian army spokesman said in a statement.

"The two sides discussed the latest developments at the regional and international levels and their impact on security and stability in the Middle East," spokesman Tamer al-Rifai said in the statement.

"They also exchanged points of view on a number of other issues, including Egypt’s current role in neighboring Libya,” he added.

“They also talked about international efforts to stamp out terrorism and extremism, stressing the importance of cooperation in this regard,” al-Rifai asserted.

In recent weeks, Cairo has hosted a number of Libyan political and media figures who have come to the Egyptian capital to discuss the fate of the Skhirat agreement, signed in late 2015 between Libya’s rival political camps.

Libya has remained in a state of turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Since then, the country’s stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, one in Tobruk and another in capital Tripoli.