The Arab Republic of Egypt stresses its inherent right to legitimate self-defense and to the protection of its citizens abroad against any threat, per the provisions of the United Nations Charter which guarantees countries’ individual and collective right to self-defense. In this context, on the dawn of February 16, Egypt conducted military air strikes targeting sites and storage facilities belonging to the terrorist organization “Daesh” in the Libyan city of Derna.

In the framework of implementing the directives issued by Egypt’s president concerning the cowardly terrorist act which took the lives of a number of Egyptian martyrs in Libya, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is conducting extensive and intense contacts with all countries of the world. All Egyptian ambassadors abroad, and assistants to the foreign minister, have been instructed summon all foreign ambassadors accredited in Cairo to inform them of the developments of the situation after this barbaric incident, while stressing the extreme gravity of the threat posed by the spread of terrorism around the world, particularly in the Middle East, and specifically in Libya. The need for the international community to immediately assume its responsibility to effectively combat terrorist organizations that share the same extremist ideology and the same malicious goals was also stressed, as was the fact that inaction towards the situation in Libya without strict intervention to combat these terrorist organizations represents a clear danger to international peace and security.

Egypt has also created an Emergency Crisis Cell within the Department of Consular Affairs at the Foreign Ministry, and has dispatched a Standing Consular Committee, while coordinating with the authorities of a number of Libya’s neighboring countries in order to assess the situation and its implications.

Egypt reiterates its call on the states participating in the international coalition against the terrorist “Daesh” organization to assume their responsibilities by supporting Egypt politically and materially, and by taking all necessary measures to combat “Daesh” and other similar organizations operating in Libya, as they are a clear threat to international peace and security, in the same way that “Daesh” in Syria and Iraq poses a threat to the world.