Former Egyptian ambassador to Turkey Abdel Rahman Salah said that "the United States and many European parties are now changing their policies that gave Turkey a mandate to balance the Russian presence in Libya."
Salah added in a statement to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed (The New Arab) newspaper that these parties are "gradually moving to a policy that encourages finding a political compromise between the East and the West, with which control can be gained over Libya's oil and gas wealth, which has become increasingly important due to the Ukrainian war and the geographical proximity to European markets."
"The Turkish Foreign Ministry announced its desire to reopen its consulate in Benghazi, while Russia's transfer of thousands of Wagner mercenaries from Libya to Ukraine, and Russia's need to transfer more of them in the same direction and to other regions such as Sudan and other African countries, has increased the possibility of reaching an Egyptian-Turkish-Russian agreement to evacuate all mercenary forces from Libya, after which about 100 regular Turkish soldiers and the same number of Russians will remain on Libyan territory."
Salah believes that "Egypt and Turkey will not abandon their Libyan allies, nor their fair share of Libyan wealth and their relative weight in forming the new government, nor will Egypt need to change its position rejecting the agreements concluded by the governments of Fayez al-Sarraj (2015-2021) and Abdul Hamid Dbeibah (since 2021) with Turkey regarding maritime borders or Turkey's exploitation of Libyan oil and gas."
"Egypt can reach an understanding with Turkey that facilitates reaching a Libyan political solution and resolving the Libyan crisis, while the Libyan parties can form a new government; taking into account Egyptian, Turkish, Western and Russian interests at the same time." He said.
According to Salah, it is also possible to reach "Egyptian-Turkish understandings on the cooperation of the two countries' companies in projects to be implemented in eastern and western Libya on an equal footing and securing Libyan political support for those projects in addition to securing Libyan funding for them."
Turkish-Egyptian relations are witnessing a great rapprochement that many analysts expect to be part of the solution to the Libyan crisis, as they both have influence on the Libyan parties.
