After his announcement, Al-Jafra walked a red line .. Will Sisi seek to divide Libya?

The statements of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, considering Sirte and Al-Jafra in central Libya, were not a red line for the government reconciliation forces, which should not be crossed except by announcing the failure of the retired Libyan brigade project, Khalifa Haftar, to extend its influence over the entire territory of Libya.

But the statements - according to politicians and analysts - carried another more serious connotation, as they appear to be the nucleus of the project to divide the vast country into 3 regions, which are Cyrenaica in the East, Fezzan in the South, and Tripoli in the West, but even according to this division, Sirte and Al-Jafra are not subordinate to the East but rather part From the provinces of West and South.

Al-Sisi's statements - which were widely rejected by the internationally recognized Libyan Al-Wefaq government, and responded by saying that all of Libya is a red line - were welcomed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in two separate separate statements in which they affirmed their support for what came in Al-Sisi's speech with heart and heart.

Sisi’s comments were also welcomed internally by his supporters in Egypt, calling for unification behind the army and its leadership, considering the matter related to Egypt’s national security.

Al-Sisi had considered that "any direct interference from the Egyptian state (in Libya) now has international legitimacy, whether for the right to self-defense, or at the request of the only legitimate elected authority in Libya, which is the House of Representatives (Tobruk)", he said.

In a televised speech made Saturday after he inspected units of the Air Force in Matrouh Governorate (west) bordering Libya, Sisi told the army forces, "Be ready to carry out any mission here within our borders, or if necessary outside our borders."

Al-Sisi considered that the cities of Sirte (north-central Libya) and Al-Jafra (southeast of the capital, Tripoli) crossed a red line.

But Turkey has rejected Sisi's word that reaching a permanent ceasefire in Libya requires the withdrawal of Khalifa Haftar's "militia" from the strategic city of Sirte, according to Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Qalan.

He added, "At the current stage, the Al-Wefaq government is in Tripoli, and we support it in this, and all parties must return to their positions in 2015 when the Skhirat political agreement was signed in Morocco," which means that Haftar's forces must withdraw from Sirte and Jafra.

After the security of the regime,
Sisi identified Sirte and Al-Jafra in the middle of Libya as a red line for Egypt that serves the interests of the current regime, but the division of Libya does not serve Egyptian national security at all, this is what the researcher in Egyptian military affairs Mahmoud Gamal went to.

Jamal assured Al-Jazeera Net that the failure of Haftar’s project to control Libya and its retreat to the Libyan East may push Sisi to cut this part and protect it militarily even if this leads to the division of Libya.

He pointed out that the Sisi regime views the eastern region of Libya adjacent to the Egyptian western borders as a security zone for the regime, especially after Egyptian armed groups reached it, so there can be no political project that contradicts the Egyptian regime's vision.

Gamal pledged the Egyptian military intervention to overtake Al-Wefaq forces to the city of Sirte, and not to make any political progress during the next few months, saying that "Al-Sisi will seek to preserve the Haftar project in the eastern region militarily even if this leads to the theoretical division of Libya. The eastern region includes oil and gas fields, It is the second most important driver of the Egyptian regime. "

Fleeing Forward
As for the former head of the Defense and National Security Committee in the Egyptian parliament, Reda Fahmy, he asked, "What is the relationship of Sirte and Al-Jufra with the limits of Egyptian national security, unless it is intended to re-float Sisi and market it regionally, and hit the Libyan land unit?"

Fahmy pointed out in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that the issue is not as easy as Sisi speaks, because the West itself is divided over the situation in Libya. For example, France’s interests contradict Italy’s interests, America’s interests conflict with Russia’s interests, and there is a strong Turkish ally on the western side, and an ally Egyptian Emirati on the eastern side.

He believed that Sisi’s statements regarding Sirte and Al-Jafra are an attempt to escape internal and external problems, such as the problem of the economic situation internally, and blocking the renaissance externally to draw attention to the successive and worsening failures in these two files, as well as other crises.

In turn, political science professor Issam Abdel Shafi warned of the repercussions of the series dismantling the region, saying that "what the commander of the military coup in Egypt announced is an explicit and direct declaration of one of the most important goals of the agenda of the axis of counter-revolutions in the region, which is dismantling and destruction."

Abdel Shafi assured Al-Jazeera Net that when Sisi described Sirte and Al-Jafra as a red line, even though they are about a thousand kilometers away from the political borders of Egypt, he seeks to consolidate the division that he worked on since the first day of the Haftar coup, because this axis's bet on the Haftar model, not on the person of Haftar So that, if Haftar falls, they have a thousand Haftar, even at the expense of the unity and territorial integrity of Libya.

He added that the mobilization of tribes, and recalling the model of awakening adopted by the United States in Iraq and adopted by al-Sisi in Sinai, means a piece of deconstruction and division papers, noting that Sisi is one of the tools of this axis to reproduce the model that the UAE is doing in Yemen now.

On the other hand, the advisor at Nasser Higher Military Academy, Major General Adel Al-Omdah stressed the importance of Sirte and Al-Jafra to the Egyptian national security.

The mayor said in press statements, "The city of Sirte is characterized by several considerations, including oil and economic, as well as its proximity to the coastal road linking Libya to the Egyptian border."

He pointed out that Al-Jafra is located in the middle of Libya and connects the south to the north, and can be reached from the Egyptian oasis of Siwa, adding that the encroachment of the other side (Al-Wefaq government forces) on these two regions is a threat to Egyptian national security that must be addressed, he said.