The Egyptian President's recent meeting with his French counterpart was little reported in the Western press. The main subject of discussion was libya and other hotspots
The Presidents of Egypt and France, as officially reported in the French media, discussed thejihadist danger coming from new libya — a recent product of the ‘coloured revolution' supported by an alliance of Western powers. Remember that this alliance was headed by Mr Francois Hollande's predecessor in the Élysée Palace, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, and the still serving British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Under libya's previous ruler, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the country was far from being a democratic paradise, but was at least free of Islamist radicals. After the start of the ‘revolution' in libya and especially the Gaddafi murder by Western-supported insurgents in 2011, the situation changed drastically. Islamists became a prominent force in libya, and the country's top leaders (described as ‘secular' or ‘liberal' by the American media) even pondered making Sharia'h law the basis of the country's new constitution.
In an interview to le Figaro, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi blamed the Western powers for the state libya is in and the ensuing dangers. “France, Britain and America had the responsibility to manage the transition of libya (from Gaddafi’s regime)”, Gen Sisi is quoted as saying. “But these Western countries never did it. By losing interest in the territory, where they themselves created a vacuum, the Western powers contributed to the creation of a chaotic situation there. libya has 1,500 kilometers of sea coast. How could it be that the European countries with Mediterranean coasts tolerated all kinds of traffic from this territoryIJ How could they allow the creation of safe havens for terroristsIJ”
The Egyptian President knows what he is talking about — Egypt is not just libya's neighbour, but a foreign country that suffered most from the Western-supported revolution in libya. Gen Sisi knows that the revolution in libya was pretty much a result of a Western intervention in that country. This intervention, in its turn, was facilitated by the toppling (again, with political and propagandistic support from the United States and the European Union) of the long-time Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. later, the same scenario repeated itself in Syria — the only difference being President Bashar al-Assad's ability to stay in power. What began as ‘peaceful' demonstrations against his rule, just as in libya, quickly turned violent with support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They were followed by a civil war and a rise injihadist activity.
In his talks with Mr Hollande, Gen Sisi emphasised how the rise ofjihadist activities in libya destabilised territories far beyond its borders. The jihadists from libya fought against President Assad in Syria, they were behind numerous terrorist attacks in Egypt's Sinai and they contributed to terrorist activities in Sahel (especially in Mali, recently invaded by the Washington-supported French ‘peacekeepers'). So much for “heroes of freedom struggle, libya's analogues of the (Afghan war hero) Massoud,” as the French ‘philosopher' Bernard-Henri levy called the libyan insurgents against Gaddafi's rule. Mr levy boasted of ‘talking' Mr Sarkozy into attacking libya, since it was after his phone call that the former French President received ‘the new Massouds' in his office and ordered bombing raids a few days later. In two years, Mr levy was raising the Maidan crowds in Kiev against Viktor Yanukovich — again with support from the Western Government and with a similarly tragic result.
The share of the EU's guilt in what has happened, as well as the share of the guilt of the US, is enormous. But will Mr Sarkozy or any other Western leaders ever bear responsibilityIJ The Western public barely even remembers the libyan war, and it is even less capable of bringing the people behind the libyan tragedy to account.
(Courtesy: Sputnik International)