Egypt is warning terrorist groups are poised to seize control of Libya’s oilfields, as the country’s foreign minister appealed for an expansion of the Western-led campaign against jihadists fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham (ISIS) to tackle extremism threatening North Africa.
Sameh Shukri, the Egyptian foreign minister, used a visit to London Monday to push for a new approach from Britain and the West to Islamist violence in Egypt and its neighbours, modelled on the campaign targeting the Islamic extremists.
“The natural resources in Libya represents a very large pool of wealth and funding that will fund terrorist activity not only there but in other parts of the world,” he said. “You see [ISIS] in Iraq utilizing gasoline and the black market, and in Libya this is a danger that will have a big impact for us.”
Six months after the Egyptian leader, Abdelfattah el-Sisi, was elected president following the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, Mr. Shukri said the organization was behind violence similar to ISIS in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere in North Africa.
Egypt has supported the Libyan government against Islamist militias that now control most of the country’s big cities and large swaths of territory, though not yet the oilfields capable of producing 2.7 million barrels a day.
“We have a struggle against similar organizations that are an offshoot of other terrorist ideologies like the [Muslim] Brotherhood and all these organizations support each other,” Mr. Shuki said. We have seen terrorists from Isil move from Iraq and Syria to Sinai, even Nigeria.
“The interconnected nature of all these organizations has to be recognized.”
Given the shared ideological roots of the Muslim Brotherhood and violent Islamist movements, the Egyptian foreign minister said the fight could not be won in Iraq and Syria alone.
AP/Maya Alleruzzo/File
AP/Maya Alleruzzo/FileEgyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri
Canada and Britain have so far deployed fighter jets to fly alongside the U.S. in carrying out strikes on ISIS in Iraq, while Persian Gulf states are conducting air strikes alongside the U.S. in Iraq and Syria.
“All of us attempting the eradication of a terrorist organization in one area will need to have greater cooperation in another if we are to comprehensively deal with this threat,” he said.
Egypt has welcomed the British government’s decision to commission a report into the scope of the Muslim Brotherhood’s activities both in Britain and around the world, as the post-revolutionary government seeks the isolation of its strongest rival.
Although the document will not be published until the end of the year, leaks have indicated Britain will take action against Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups where there are suspicions of financing or involvement with suspicious activities abroad.
Mr. Sisi has declared the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist group, although it has said it is peaceful and rejected links to the attacks.
Mr. Shukri said Britain should aim at the group’s finances, organizational structures and “ability to continue to promote violence extremism”.
