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Tuesday, 21 July 2020

Parliament vote to approve intervention in Libya top story on talk shows

It was wall-to-wall foreign policy on the airwaves last night (with a sprinkling of covid and an interview with the EgyptAir boss — both of which earn a mention in this morning’s What We’re Tracking Today, above).

Parliament authorizes military deployment to Libya: Al Kahera Alaan’s Lamees El Hadidi spoke with parliamentary spokesperson Salah Hasaballah to discuss yesterday’s vote to allow the president to militarily intervene in Libya. While most of the details from the session remain a secret (given it was held in a closed session), Hasaballah said that members of the National Defence Council were allowed to outline their proposals and fielded questions from MPs ahead of the vote (watch, runtime: 6:25). Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary spoke with Deputy House Speaker El Sayed El Sherif, who described the vote as “historic,”' saying that the presence of foreign fighters in Libya posed a threat to the security of Libya, Egypt and the wider Arab region (watch, runtime: 6:40). El Hekaya’s Amr Adib spoke with Mahmoud Fawzy, secretary-general of the House, to discuss the vote (watch, runtime: 6:23), while Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa covered the parliament’s statement on the decision (watch, runtime: 4:43).

Ex-FM Fahmy chimes in: El Hadidi spoke with former foreign minister Nabil Fahmy, who said that Egypt was still committed to a political solution to the crisis. Egypt can no longer depend on the US to broker a peace agreement, and the government should look instead to Russia, which he said was more influential and willing to act to end the conflict. Fahmy also discussed the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations, saying that the African Union is placing pressure on the parties involved to reach a resolution and prevent an escalation, and that it will present possible solutions at its upcoming limited presidential summit (watch, runtime: 16:47).

GERD’s controversial filling: Adib also spoke with Alaa Al Zawahiri, a member of Egypt’s technical GERD team, who said that Ethiopia had not started filling the dam yet, but was only conducting routine storing. He said that Egypt did not object to storing water, but to possible unilateral decisions by Ethiopia during times of drought (watch, runtime: 2:25).

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