Egypt’s reopening of its embassy in Tripoli signals regional shift on Libya

The reopening of the Egyptian embassy in Tripoli marks a fundamental political shift, both domestically and regionally, for Libya, analysts say.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty inaugurated the historic embassy building on Saturday, which had been closed for 12 years due to security concerns.

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Libya has been politically divided since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with rival administrations formed in Tripoli in the west and Tobruk and Benghazi in the east.

Egypt was widely considered to be backing the eastern authority, effectively led by strongman and renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, and his self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), until recent regional developments led Cairo to rethink its approach.

Libyan political analyst Hazem al-Rayes said the reopening of the embassy in Tripoli – which was the seat of the internationally recognised government that Haftar was fighting – is a sign of this.

“I can consider that what Egypt is doing in its recent moves towards the capital, Tripoli, is an attempt to readjust its behaviour in the Libyan file … [for] five years, no Egyptian foreign minister visited the capital,” he told Al Jazeera.

Elias al-Barouni, a political science professor at Libya’s Nalut University, also believes the move goes beyond the resumption of regular consular services in Tripoli.

“We are facing an indicator of a shift in Cairo’s method of managing its relations with the Libyan parties, and a rearrangement of its priorities in dealing with the Libyan crisis,” al-Barouni told Al Jazeera.

There have been several significant political and regional shifts that have somewhat stabilised the volatile situation in Libya, where thousands have been killed in fighting between militias attached to rival political authorities.

In July 2026, Ankara and the LNA reached unprecedented coordination, spearheading agreements to develop military facilities, advanced surveillance systems, and training programmes in Turkiye for eastern Libyan officers.

The deputy commander of eastern Libyan forces and Haftar’s son, Saddam Haftar, has also paid visits to regional capitals, including Turkiye and Qatar, which have supported the United Nations-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

In Libya, rivals recently signed the so-called “4+4 agreement” that sets out a roadmap for possible presidential and legislative elections over the next two years.

Badr Hassan al-Shafei, a professor of African studies and conflict resolution at Cairo University, told Al Jazeera that Egypt came to revisit its policy towards Libya after realising that its reliance on eastern forces, led by Haftar, was not conducive to its overall strategic interests.

“It is clear that Cairo … found that relying on one party or leaning towards one party in Libya, which is Haftar’s party, may not be the right bet perhaps at the present time or even for a while, since the Turkish intervention several years ago,” al-Shafei told Al Jazeera.

“Consequently, perhaps Egypt wants to create a balance or also send a message to Haftar that he should not act unilaterally and that acting should be in coordination with Cairo, so it worked to extend bridges of cooperation with Libya also …”

Egypt has also become more concerned about developments to the south of its border, particularly the expansion of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, which had allegedly received support from Haftar.

“Today, Egypt is no longer the Egypt of five years ago when its policies and relations were limited only to the [eastern] authorities in Benghazi,” al-Rayes told Al Jazeera.

It is “convinced today that its ally [LNA], which it supported throughout the past years at the expense of the legitimate government in Tripoli … has distanced itself from it today, and it needs to readjust its political behaviour with Tripoli and with the legitimate government”, he said.

Maritime border disputes

During Abdelatty’s visit to Tripoli, he discussed critical economic files with Libyan officials, including the 2019 maritime border memorandum of understanding signed between Tripoli and Ankara.

According to the Facebook page of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdelatty reaffirmed the importance of addressing Egyptian concerns regarding maritime demarcation between Libya and Turkiye in light of international law. The eastern parliament recently ratified the maritime agreement, which it initially opposed.

“Consequently, perhaps Cairo is trying to prevent the ratification of this agreement from causing damage to its interests in gas and oil exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean, and from that it wanted to extend bridges to Tripoli as well,” al-Shafei said.

“Instead of limiting itself to political and diplomatic objection from outside Tripoli, Cairo has become negotiating directly with the Libyan government that signed the agreement.”

Egypt might also be attracted to opportunities that reconstruction and the revival of Libya’s oil industry might bring.

“Perhaps with the reconstruction process, the incoming Egyptian labour will have priority, or even the currently present one will have its living conditions improved, not to mention the idea of the possibility of Egyptian investments and companies entering the reconstruction process,” al-Shafei said.

Push for settlement

After years of backing rival sides, a new regional consensus means there is a greater likelihood of rivals in Libya reaching a comprehensive agreement to end the war, al-Rayes told Al Jazeera.

But al-Barouni cautioned that there is still a plethora of issues facing Libya, and only a comprehensive solution can end the divisions within Libya.

“The Libyan problem is not merely a dispute over the name of the head of government, but rather it is a dispute over the nature of power, the distribution of influence, control over institutions and resources, the future of the military institution, and the conditions for reaching elections,” al-Barouni said.

“If Cairo, Ankara, Washington, and other capitals agree on the necessity of ending the division, that is a development that can be built upon, but the success of any settlement remains linked to the ability of the Libyans to formulate an independent national project. Libya needs a settlement that ends the division, not a deal that redistributes the division.”