Africaupdated 28m ago2 min read
MapEgypt Reopens Embassy in Tripoli After 12-Year Closure, Badr Abdelatty Inaugurates
“during a visit by Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty for talks on trade, energy and a disputed maritime boundary.”
“The step signals a shift in Cairo’s stance, following years of strongly backing eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar.”
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Egypt reopened its embassy in Tripoli after a 12-year closure dating to 2014. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty chaired the reopening ceremony and inaugurated the historic building.
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Tripoli Embassy Returns
Egypt reopened its embassy in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, on Saturday after a 12-year closure that began in 2014 amid violence and insecurity in Libya. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty inaugurated the embassy building in Tripoli after arriving in Libya earlier in the day, and the Tripoli-based government described the reopening as “a step reflecting the development of bilateral relations between the two countries.”
Libya’s political landscape remained divided between a UN-recognized administration in Tripoli led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah and a rival in the east backed by Haftar, as the embassy returned to the western capital. The reopening came weeks after the Libyan parliament based in the eastern part of the country ratified a long-disputed maritime agreement with Turkey, a decision that provoked Cairo’s anger over an alleged encroachment on its maritime zone.
Energy and Diplomatic Contacts
Badr Abdelatty told the Tripoli-based government that Egypt wanted to begin “on the technical level, the implementation phase,” and he pointed to “the construction of a gas pipeline connecting Libya to Egypt.” The Cairo-based foreign ministry framed the embassy reopening as part of a diplomatic rapprochement, and it said the move reflected an intention to strengthen diplomatic presence and consolidate relations with authorities in western Libya.
Euronews reported that Abdelatty joined Libya’s acting foreign minister Taher al-Baour at the ceremony, and it said Abdelatty met Abdulhamid Dbeibah to discuss ways to make trade easier. Euronews also said Abdelatty called for faster progress on gas pipelines between the two countries and on plans to refine Libyan crude in Egypt for export, while Libya’s acting oil minister attended talks at the reopened embassy.
After 2014, New Leverage
Egypt’s embassy reopening in Tripoli followed the closure of the mission in 2014, when violence and political instability forced many diplomatic representations and international organizations to leave the country. CairoScene said Egypt evacuated its diplomatic mission in January 2014 after five Egyptian diplomatic personnel were kidnapped in two incidents, and it added that the unoccupied building was looted in October 2014 and damaged by a car bomb the following month.
DW said Egypt reopened the embassy building after it had been closed in 2014 amid political division and violence, and it described the step as reflecting the depth of the relationship and the historical and geographical ties between the two brotherly peoples. DW also reported that Egypt’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nader Zaki said Egypt reviewed UN efforts with Hana Titiyah, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, during a meeting at the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli.