Sisi seeks US arms to tackle 'jihadi camps' in Libya

Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel Fatah al-Sisi last week told a top-level US media and security delegation that his country needs military aid to root out militant training camps in Libya, according to remarks published on Wednesday by US media.

Sisi said that unless the US helps Cairo contain civil chaos in Libya, as well as Iraq and Syria, that this would lead to these countries becoming “fertile ground for religious extremism”. He added that this would have a “disastrous” outcome for both Americans and the Arabs, Fox News reported.

Just four weeks before a national vote Sisi is widely expected to win in a landslide, the candidate castigated the West for failing to secure Libya after the 2011 air war that NATO launched to help rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi.

The failure to put US troops on the ground after this Libya overthrow created a political vacuum that left the country at the mercy of “extremists, assassins, and murderers.”

“History will judge you severely,” he declared.

A day before these remarks were published, Washington on Tuesday announced it was giving the go-ahead for the delivery of 10 Apache helicopters to Egypt that the Obama administration had withheld since the overthrow of elected president Mohamed Morsi.

US officials said that the gunships would be used to supress insurgents in Sinai, although exclusive reports by MEE have found that civilians are also dying in their hundreds in these operations.  

The apparent détente between Washington and Cairo contrasts with harsh diplomatic words from the former over a violent crackdown by the Egyptian military against Morsi’s supporters.