Friday's terrorist attack in Minya which security forces say Libyan terrorists helped plan, underlined the urgency of Cairo's concerns about unchecked anarchy prevailing in Libya. Yet Egypt's strategy towards the chaos across its western border remains cautious given the complexities of the international and regional scene. Cairo is acutely aware the expansion of the Islamic State (IS) – in number as well as in influence – necessitates greater diplomatic efforts in lobbying for an international coalition capable of launching the kind of wide-scale military action that could limit the spread of terrorist groups. In the immediate aftermath of the Minya attack Presdeint Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi appealed to President Trump to lead the global war against terror. In a televised address just hours after attacks, Al-Sisi said: “I direct my appeal to President Trump. I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task.” Al-Sisi repeated his call, made during his address before the Islamic summit held in Riyadh last month, for countries which finance, train or arm extremists to be punished. A more decisive strategy to combat terrorism is needed said a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity, “be it organised air strikes targeting specific sites – especially in Libya – alongside negotiation, or an all-out global war that indiscriminately targets the terrorist groups in Libya as well as in other places”. Rakha Hassan, a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, says the air strikes underline how the present situation in Libya represents a challenge to Egyptian national security, leaving Cairo with no option but to defend itself. “The response can be in the form of air strikes or the adoption of other preventive measures,” he said. “From now on we need to increase the practical measures we take, and that includes striking terrorist training centres and attacking terrorist camps.” Unlike in 2015, when Washington showed little interest intackling IS, the US administration appears determined to combat terrorism. “The US stand is clear. It is reflected on the diplomatic level by Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri's coordination with his American counterpart Rex Tillerson and by increased cooperation on the intelligence level,” argues Hassan. Earlier this week Egypt handed a letter to the head of the UN Security Council explaining its airstrikes in eastern Libya fell squarely within its right to exercise self-defence. It is not the first time Egypt has launched air strikes in Libyan territory. Egyptian forces bombed IS linked targets in Derna in 2015 after IS released a videoshowing the beheading of 21 kidnapped Egyptian Copts. There were also rumours of a ground operation though no official confirmation was issued. Following the 2015 air strikes Cairo called for UN-backed international intervention in Libya and a UN resolution mandating action to deal with the crisis. “There is no other choice, taking into account the agreement of the Libyan people and government, and that they have called on us to act,” Al-Sisi said at the time. Cairo's attempts to gain support for international military intervention in Libya fell on deaf ears. The international community preferred, instead, to focus on a political resolution to the conflict in Libya, encouraging all parties to join UN sponsored talks. Egypt then tried – unsuccessfully – to lobby the Security Council to lift the arms embargo placed on the legitimate government in Libya. The embargo on exporting arms to Libya has been in place since 2011 when former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi launched a crackdown against pro-democracy protesters. It has singularly failed to prevent extremist and terrorist groups accessing weapons. Egyptian support for peace negotiations in Libya extended to attendance at a number of UN-sponsored rounds of talks and Cairo welcomed the 2015 Skhirat Agreement in the hope it would foster stability and help combat a growing IS presence. Cairo has also offered support to the forces of General Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) based in the east of the country. Haftar has been frequently hosted by Cairo. His last visit was in January. Libya has sunk into a quagmire of factional fighting and the country has been left all but lawless since the fall of Gaddafi in 2011. Competing governments in Tobruk and Tripoli, backed by militias, are fighting for control of the oil-producing state. The resulting anarchyhas provided a fertile breeding ground for Islamist militants. Meanwhile, the Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution urging member states to “follow a number of concrete guidelines aimed at countering the narratives used by terrorist groups and amplifying positive and credible alternatives to audiences vulnerable to extremist messages”. Amr Abul-Atta, Egypt's representative to the UN, says Cairo took the lead in pressing for a strategy to combat terrorist discourse, contributing to the international debate via prestigious religious institutions such as Al-Azhar. “What we're doing today is not simply adopting another document to join the pile,” said Abul-Atta who also chairs the Counter-Terrorism Committee that lobbied for the resolution. A small group of sates, he said, continue to violate resolutions by supporting terrorism making it all the more important that the Security Council deliver a message to the world and to terrorists that they are “simply dust in the eyes of humanity”, representatives of no religion and “doomed to disappear”.
