Malta Praises Egypt Influential Role in Libya

Maltese Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo confirmed, in an exclusive interview with "Sky News Arabia", that his country "will not be used against any other country," stressing that the solution to the crisis in Libya is that "Libya belongs to Libyans," praising Egypt's role in preserving the stability of the region.

The Maltese Foreign Minister explained the importance of Libya to his country, referring to its geographical proximity, saying: "We are very close to Libya. The journey takes 40 minutes between Malta and Tripoli, so it is in our interest that Libya is at peace, prosperous and united. Libya should be in the hands of the Libyans."

In addition, the bad conditions in which the Libyans live, which need an urgent solution, according to the minister, who added: "Libyans are going through very difficult times, not only because of the conflict, but they have neither electricity nor water, and the prices of basic commodities are high and the dinar currency is weak."

Evarist Bartolo said that the best way to help the Libyans is to "bring them together for dialogue," noting at the same time that it is not that easy.

He continued, "I know that this is difficult because they have fought a lot and there is a lack of trust between them. We have to rebuild trust between them so that the people of the East can talk to the people of the West, and they also talk with the people of the South."

He added, "It is important to get them to talk to each other, so that the flow of oil returns again, and until the money earned from oil reaches everyone because they need to get their basic needs, especially since the Coronavirus has made their lives more difficult."

He also noted that Libya's neighbors "are not involved in the conflict there," saying: "I look at Egypt, Malta, Tunisia, and Algeria ... we are not involved in the conflict, we did not cause this. It is in our interest and in Libya's interest that we help them to meet together."

In this regard, Bartolo praised the Egyptian role in trying to solve the Libyan crisis, saying: “We respect very much the position of Egypt, as it is a moderate and stable country and it works for the stability of the region, and we have noticed the cautious speech it uses. We understand the importance of Libya to Egypt, due to the long borders between the two countries. ".

Bartolo continued, "Even when we spoke with the Tripoli government, it also respects the Cairo Declaration and the importance of bringing the two sides from Tripoli and Tobruk to work together. We had high hopes when Tripoli's Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj announced a ceasefire and the head of the Libyan Parliament Aqila Saleh announced the same. and it seemed that the fighting had stopped. There were some incidents on both sides, but in general, the ceasefire happened. "

Bartolo stressed the importance of moving now to "after the ceasefire", to make it permanent.