Hassan Rashad met with Saddam Haftar on his first visit to Egypt after the approval of the border demarcation agreement between Türkiye and Libya

The head of Egyptian General Intelligence, Hassan Rashad, received, on Friday, in Cairo, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Libyan Forces, Lieutenant General Saddam Haftar, in the latter’s first visit to Egypt, since the Libyan Parliament in the east of the country ratified the maritime border demarcation agreement between Türkiye and Libya.

The Egyptian Al-Ahram Gateway said that the meeting discussed cooperation between the two countries in various files of common interest, setting a working mechanism to activate joint strategic and economic projects between the two countries, and ways to advance the political process to unify political power to reach permanent elections in Libya.

This meeting comes within the framework of Cairo's openness to the various concerned Libyan parties, its efforts to preserve the unity and integrity of the Libyan state, and to strengthen its historical relations with the Libyan people.

Last October, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, discussed with the head of Egyptian General Intelligence, Major General Hassan Rashad, bilateral relations and coordination on files of common interest.

The Libyan House of Representatives in the east of the country also voted, last October, in favor of adopting the memorandum of understanding signed between the Government of National Accord and Turkey in 2019, related to the maritime borders between the two countries, a memorandum that sparked sharp criticism and rejection from Egypt and Israel.

The spokesman for the House of Representatives in eastern Libya, Abdullah Balhiq, said at the time, on his Facebook account: “The House of Representatives voted unanimously to adopt the memorandum of understanding signed between the Government of National Accord and the Government of the Republic of Turkey on defining areas of maritime jurisdiction in the Mediterranean Sea.” In response, Egypt announced its categorical rejection of the Libyan House of Representatives, held in the east of the country, approving the memorandum of understanding signed in 2019 between the former Government of National Accord and Turkey regarding the demarcation of maritime borders.