[Al Ahram] Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met Saturday with Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar... served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
in Cairo where the two discussed recent developments in the Libyan situation, a presidential statement read.
The Egyptian president reiterated that Egypt encourages political dialogue to end the Libyan crisis as well as reaching amendments to the Skhirat agreement, which was signed in Morocco in 2015 and mandates the reaching of a peaceful transition of power in Libya and the establishment of a national unity government.
"El-Sisi stressed to Haftar, a figurehead in the east of Libya, the importance of reuniting the Libyan military, which was created 77 years ago by the hands of it’s people from different [Libyan] regions," the statement added.
The president also affirmed the importance of lifting the arms embargo on the Libyan army, imposed by the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
on all factions of Libya in February 2011 citing "violent repression of civilian demonstrators" by former president Muammar Qadaffy
...Proof that a madman with money will be politely received for at least 42 years until his people get tired of him and kill him...
El-Sisi also pointed to the necessity of stopping the financing of terrorist groups and preventing their supplies of weapons.
For his part, General Haftar expressed his gratitude for Egypt’s role in efforts to end the Libyan crisis and its efforts to reach a settlement for the situation, the statement added.