Cairo will continue with efforts to help unify the Libyan armed forces, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the UN envoy to Libya in Cairo on Sunday. In an official statement, Egypt's foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said that Shoukry apprised UN envoy Ghassan Salame of Egyptian efforts to push forward with the Libyan crisis settlement. According to Shoukry, the violent clashes witnessed by Libya's Tripoli have proven the necessity of dealing with the spread of militias and the importance of constructing and unifying Libyan national security institutions to achieve the aspired stability. Salame discussed the efforts made by the UN in Libya, including successfully reaching a ceasefire agreement between armed groups in Tripoli, as well as his vision on dealing with similar challenges in Libya. He also praised Egypt's efforts to unify the Libyan army, expressing his hope that such efforts would encourage working on unifying other Libyan institutions. The meeting included an exchange of viewpoints on pushing forward political talks in the country, with both sides agreeing on the necessity of carrying out the UN initiative for a Libyan solution with all its elements. Egypt has been hosting since 2016 a series of negotiations between the rival Libyan factions, stressing in these meetings the need for a political consensus to end the war. In September 2016, Egypt was chosen by the Libyan Armed Forces to be “the starting point of reorganising the country's army, as it was at its initial foundation” following a Cairo-hosted Egyptian-Libyan committee meeting in which a range of Libyan military officials discussed why the Libyan armed forces have faced development and unity crises over the past seven years. Following the 2011 uprising, Libya fell into civil war with two rival governments emerging, one in the western city of Tripoli and another in the eastern city of Tobruk.
