Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday that Egypt will not allow militias to threaten its security.

“We will not tolerate these dangers to our country,” Shoukry said during the monthly meeting of the UN Security Council over the situation in Libya, which was held via video conference. 

“We call on the international community to face the danger of the terrorist organisations in Libya,” he said, adding that the Islamic State terrorist organisation has resurfaced once again in some Western Libyan cities, especially in the city of Sabratah.

Without mentioning any country by name, Shoukry slammed regional powers that are intervening in Libya by sending Syrian fighters to the country on a daily basis, which threatens the stability of the Middle East and Mediterranean regions.

“I take this opportunity to reassert that the member states [of the UN Security Council] are obliged to fight terrorism in Libya by condemning any sort of support for radical forces by regional powers,” he said.

The Egyptian foreign minister also said that there are militias in Libya that want to implement their agendas at the expense of the Libyan people.

“Egypt’s position is focused on supporting a political solution for a unified Libya as mentioned in the Cairo Declaration, which was issued on 6 June 2020 in accordance with the results of the Berlin Conference and related UN Security Council resolutions as well as the resolutions of the League of Arab States and the African Union,” Shoukry said.

Shoukry said that stability in Libya depends on restructuring the presidential council, forming an independent government agreed upon by all Libyan parties and approved by the Libyan parliament, disarming the militias, fighting terrorism, unifying the military institution, and ensuring a fair distribution of wealth.

“Egypt supports these basic principles for a political solution, and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi repeated Egypt’s demand for an unconditional ceasefire in Libya in his speech on 20 June 2020, [where he stressed] that all parties should refrain from military action in order to resume the political process, which includes all legitimate parties, in order to reach a Libyan/Libyan solution,” he said.