Shadow Points And Standing Questions About Aqila Salah’s Visit To Algeria

At the last minute, the visit to Algeria of the head of the Tobruk-based Parliament Aqila Salah, which was scheduled for Saturday, was postponed, a delay that sparked off a number of lingering questions about its background.

This postponement was announced by Fathi Al-Marimi, political adviser to Aqila Salah, but he did not provide explanations about the reasons behind such a move.

During his visit which was supposed to take place in last two days, Aqila Salah was to be received by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and the two parties would have discussed ways to solve the Libyan crisis, according to the statements of the Libyan party.

The postponement of the visit of the Speaker of the Tobruk Parliament, amid a volatile atmosphere, was marked by a major escalation between the two parties to the conflict in the eastern neighbor, and those who were behind them from regional powers. “This explosive situation could justify direct Egyptian military intervention in Libya”, Egyptian President Al Sisi said.

This war-like statement was followed by a violent Turkish attack on the Egyptian move to arm the Libyan tribes located in the east of the country to confront the tribes of the western region, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan considered “illegal”, and announced the preparation of a new agreement with the internationally-recognized government, headed by Fayez al-Sarraj based in the capital, Tripoli.

It was not clear yet what were the reasons for this delay, as neither of the two parties specified a later date for this visit, and whether the matter was related to its final cancellation. These are questions that the answer to them is sufficient to know the reasons for canceling or postponing this visit, which official Algeria did not talk about, whether before or after the cancellation or postponement.

According to a diplomatic source, the failure of Algeria to receive Aqila Saleh, has to do with the position of the “Tobruk House of Representatives” regarding external interference in the Libyan issue, which Algeria considers a red line in dealing with the Libyan crisis, and the latest announcement of the Egyptian President to arm young tribes of the East, is viewed as an escalation that Algeria does not hope for, because it complicates the mission of the political solution that it calls for.

It is known that Aqila Salah from his position as Chairman of the Council of Representatives in Eastern Libya, had issued an official invitation to the Egyptian army for direct military intervention on the Libyan soil, as he supported without conditions the transfer of some symbols of the Libyan tribes to Cairo and their meeting with the Egyptian President, and give them what can be considered “Tribal legitimacy” to reinforce the legitimacy of the “Tobruk parliament” standing.

The declared Egyptian military intervention, aimed at arming the Libyan tribes, which President Tebboune warned against, would lead to a “Somalization” of the Libyan crisis, as he recently stated in his interview with the French TV channel, “France 24”.

President Tebboune stressed in this regard the imperious need of a genuine “dialogue between the Libyan brothers in order to reach a consensual political solution, based on the outcome of the Berlin Conference, as this is the only way to guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Libyan state, away from any foreign military interventions”.