Awaiting an official statement, Egypt, a longtime ally of Marshal Khalifa Haftar who controls, with his family clan, the eastern Libyan region, has withdrawn its military experts from Benghazi.
This move would reflect the level of political and strategic divergence between the two sides after years of rapprochement, as Cairo proceeded to reopen its embassy in Tripoli after 12 years of closure.
This divergence has reached its peak when the Libyan House of Representatives, close to Haftar’s clan and based in the eastern part of the country, ratified, in October 2026, the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Tripoli government and which grants Turkey a broad maritime economic zone for the exploitation of gas in the Mediterranean.
Egypt rejects the agreement firmly, viewing it as “a threat to its sovereignty.” It contends that it does not comply with the rules of international law regarding the delimitation of maritime economic zones.
Several other strategic and geopolitical disagreements divide the two camps, and especially currently the Egyptian project of a route linking the Port of Beérénice on the Red Sea to the Port of Douala in Cameroon on the Atlantic, passing through southern Libya and Chad. It stretches over more than 1,700 kilometers.
According to associates of Haftar’s clan, this project could jeopardize the future role of the Port of Syrte. The port is in a development phase. The eastern Libyan authorities hope to reap great profits by transporting goods to the most inland regions of Africa.
Support for Sudanese paramilitaries that is not going down well
These recent divisions add to another older and more compromising rift in the relations between Cairo and Benghazi.
Egypt has never accepted the role played by the eastern Libyan camp in the war in Sudan, transporting weapons and ammunition from Abu Dhabi to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to several UN reports.
These deep divergences were amplified by Marshal Haftar’s disappearance from the public space and the consolidation of all his political and military affairs by the Libyan National Army’s second-in-command, his son Saddam Haftar.
