Egypt reopens embassy in Libya’s Tripoli after 12-year closure

TRIPOLI: Egypt reopened its embassy in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Saturday after a 12-year absence, marking a rapprochement with the country’s western-based administration, the foreign affairs ministry in Cairo said in a statement.

The move marks a shift for Cairo, which has been one of the most prominent backers of eastern-based military commander Khalifa Haftar, a rival of the Tripoli-based government.

Egypt closed its ⁠Tripoli embassy in 2014, when many foreign missions there closed amid an escalating conflict that saw rival governments set themselves up in the capital and in the east of the ⁠huge North African country.

Egypt’s foreign affairs minister Badr Abdelatty was quoted in the statement as saying at the reopening ceremony that the historical significance of the embassy building “aligns with the deep-rooted human and cultural…