Has Egypt Become A Hurdle To Resolving Vexed Libyan Crisis?

The tripartite meeting bringing together the foreign ministers of Libya’s neighboring countries, sponsored by Algeria, called for the implementation of the UN action plan to resolve the lingering crisis in Libya and to provide the necessary conditions to speed up its implementation in the hope of ending the crisis now besetting the eastern neighbor.
The outcome of this meeting revealed the will of the three countries to thrash out an early solution to the Libyan crisis.
However, the divergences related to the strategic calculations of each country, coupled with this will, and with a reference notably to Egypt, which has placed its military air force at the disposal of one of the main parties involved in the Libyan crisis.
At the same time, Algeria affirms through foreign minister Abdelkader Messahel, that it “stands at a distance from all the Libyan parties and has not stopped its serious efforts away from the limelight in reaching out to the brothers in Libya in all their different components and at all political, social and local levels in order to achieve the necessary consensus leading to the long-awaited political solution” .
Mr Abdelkader Messahel said in his opening speech that Egypt is one of the main parties to the crisis, represented by retired Libyan Major General Khalifa Haftar, commander of the so-called “dignity process offensive”.
While Messahel and his Tunisian counterparts Khamis Djahnawi and Egyptian Sameh Shoukri were meeting in the capital Algiers to discuss ways of resolving the Libyan crisis, the Egyptian air force was striking alongside General Haftar’s forces in the far east of Libya, outside the will of the internationally recognized government of reconciliation based in Tripoli.
The Algerian-Tunisian contrast, on the one hand, and the Egyptian on the other, was echoed by Mr. Messahel, who said that “Algeria continues to coordinate with the Presidential Council of the National Reconciliation Government so as to fulfill the basic needs of the deprived people of the border areas, adding that this crisis is intricate”.
Algeria and Tunisia agree to coordinate efforts with the National Reconciliation Government in Tripoli headed by Mr. Fayez Al-Sarraj, and consider what General Haftar is doing militarily against the legitimate Libyan state institutions, recognized by the international community, as an act of revolt.
Cairo is going in the opposite direction, insisting on curbing the role of the Libyan central government and supporting an illegal body that is not internationally recognized.
Mr. Messahel thus seized the opportunity to send encrypted messages to his Egyptian counterpart, reminding him of the seriousness of his country’s adverse practices, albeit through hints that will not be missed by Sameh Shoukri, as stated in Messahel’s speech.
“The continuation of the crisis hampers the efforts of the presidential council and the government of National consensus”, in reference to the unabated military actions carried out by General Haftar and his supporters in the eastern part of Libya”, he added.
All these facts will prolong the life of the vexed Libyan crisis, and the evidence that the tripartite meeting that took place in Algiers on Monday evening is the fourth of its kind, yet the objectives of these encounters have not yet been achieved.