Gregoris Savva

Field Marshal Saddam Haftar, son of and deputy to the commander-in-chief of the Libyan National Army, arrived in Cairo on Sunday evening on a surprise visit aimed at containing Egypt’s publicly expressed displeasure over the Libyan House of Representatives’ approval of the controversial maritime agreement with Turkey. The visit comes at an extremely sensitive time, following the removal of Aguila Saleh as speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives and the election of Salah al-Din al-Namroush in his place. It also follows Egypt’s rejection of the Libyan parliament’s decision to recognize the agreement signed in 2019 by Fayez al-Sarraj, the former head of the Government of National Accord, with Turkey. Cairo understands that the decision was made with the green light from Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his son Saddam, as part of their ambition to leverage Turkish influence in western Libya to facilitate the implementation of a power-sharing plan proposed by Massad Boulos, the US president’s senior adviser on Arab and African affairs. The plan calls for unifying the forces of eastern and western Libya into a single regular army and establishing a new governing authority that would give Saddam a presidential position, while Abdel Hamid Dbeibah would remain in office as head of the interim Government of National Unity. The plan requires securing Saddam’s peaceful entry into the capital, Tripoli, where Turkey maintains a military base and a significant intelligence facility. The visit comes amid publicly expressed Egyptian anger, conveyed by Egyptian Intelligence Chief General Hassan Rashad to Dbeibah in a telephone call on Saturday evening. Egyptian sources expect the newly appointed speaker of the Libyan House of Representatives to arrive in Cairo at a later date, on his first foreign visit since taking office. Egyptian communications have involved several Libyan parties, alongside coordination with Cyprus and Greece, which are also affected by the Libyan-Turkish agreement.