Egypt embarks on ambitious campaign

Associated Press

CAIRO

Egypt is making an ambitious bid to place itself at the center of the fight against extremism across the Middle East. Beyond fighting militants in its own Sinai Peninsula, it is trying to organize an international coalition against the Islamic State in Libya and helping Saudi Arabia defend its borders.

The growing military alliance is rooted in a shared belief among Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Gulf Arab leaders that extremism must be confronted regionwide.

It has been anchored with a quid pro quo: Gulf oil powerhouses Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have given Egypt an estimated $30 billion to rescue its damaged economy in return for Egypt providing military manpower alongside its Gulf counterparts.

With the alliance, this nation of 90 million people seeks to maneuver itself into a leadership role that has eluded it in recent years, first because of waning influence under former President Hosni Mubarak, then because of the turmoil that followed his 2011 ouster.

A contingent of Egyptian troops is already deployed on Saudi Arabia’s border with Iraq to help defend it against jihadi fighters, who earlier this year carried out a deadly cross-border raid, according to Egyptian military and security officials.

On another front, Gulf nations have said they are considering what action to take in Yemen, where Shiite rebels known as Houthis — widely suspected of links to Iran — have taken power in the capital and are fighting to seize more of the country.

Egypt already has military advisers on the Saudi-Yemeni border tasked mainly with developing a joint strategy with the Saudis to confront future hostilities, according to the officials, who have first-hand knowledge of Egypt’s plans. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the deployments.

Plans for the creation of a military alliance with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and possibly Jordan were back on track after a period of hiatus, said the officials, with France, Italy and Algeria now viewed as possible additional partners.

Already, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are bankrolling multibillion-dollar arms purchases by Egypt, including jet fighters and naval pieces from both France and Russia. A deal with Germany to buy two submarines is under discussion, said the officials.

Separately, Egypt is trying to persuade the West to open up a new front against the Islamic State group in Libya, Egypt’s western neighbor, and is appealing for “political and material” support to enable it to contain the threat in Libya.

On Tuesday, El-Sissi called on the United Nations to approve a new coalition for airstrikes in Libya, where the extremists have set up their first major affiliate outside of Iraq and Syria. He argued in a radio interview that the Islamic State group in Libya is not just a threat to Egypt — its militants beheaded a group of Egyptian Christians in a video released this week — but to Europe as well.

“I want to say humanity will judge us if we do not fight against terrorism and protect humanity,” el-Sissi told France’s Europe 1 radio.