Egypt's parliament on Monday approved the deployment of armed forces abroad to fight "criminal militias" and "foreign terrorist groups" on a "western front", after President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi said Cairo could intervene in Libya.
Parliament said in a statement that the troops would be defending national security, without giving further details or naming Libya directly.
Sisi and US President Donald Trump agreed on Monday on the need to maintain a ceasefire in Libya and avoid an escalation between the forces fighting there, Egypt’s presidency said.
Sisi said last week Egypt would not stand idle in the face of threats to Egyptian and Libyan security.
"Egypt will spare no efforts to support the sister Libya ... to overcome the current critical crisis," the Egyptian presidency said in a statement after a meeting of the National Defense Council on Sunday that was chaired by Sisi.
Egypt is concerned about instability in Libya and Turkey’s support for the Government of National Accord in Tripoli, whose fighters have moved closer to the central city of Sirte in the hope of recapturing it from the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) of Khalifa Haftar.
Sisi last month declared the Sirte and Jufra frontlines a red line for Egypt.
Libya´s east-based parliament, the sole elected body in the country, also urged Sisi to send troops.
Sisi and Trump also discussed Ethiopia’s planned Blue Nile dam, the Egyptian presidency said. Cairo is worried that Ethiopia will start filling the dam without an agreement with Cairo and Sudan, which would also be affected.
