Yet a handful of influential governments including France, Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have not condemned Hifter. Hifter was a top general in Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi’s army before defecting in the late 1980s and joining a U.S.-backed Libyan opposition group. Egypt, which shares a 750-mile border with eastern Libya, was concerned about instability and Islamist militants spilling into its territory. At the time, the Islamic State had seized the coastal city of Sirte, and al-Qaeda and other militant groups had moved into eastern Libya. It was no surprise that they all kept silent as Hifter’s forces this year swept from his eastern stronghold, seizing oil fields and large swaths of the south.

Source: Libya Today April 09, 2019 22:18 UTC