Jason Pack of Libya-analysis.com recently took part in an interesting discussion on Aljazeera’s Inside Story. Jason touched on three important themes that have surfaced in the Islamist/Non-Islamist most recent episode: the bifurcation of Libya, foreign intervention and the proxy war that Libya has become.In a very informative piece in the New York Times, David Kirkpatrick and Eric Schmidt disclosed that American officials said the Egyptians and the Emiratis had teamed up against Islamist target in Libya at least once before this week. Teams of “special forces” operating out of Egypt but possibly composed primarily of Emiratis had also successfully destroyed an Islamist camp near the eastern Libyan city of Derna, an extremist stronghold. The officials brought to attention that the United Arab Emirates boasts one of the most effective air forces in the Arab world, made up of American equipment and training, provided the pilots, warplanes and aerial refueling planes necessary for the fighters to bomb Tripoli out of bases in Egypt. The two authors suggest that the agenda of the Egypt and Saudi Arabia is fairly obvious:
The strikes in Tripoli are another salvo in a power struggle defined by Arab autocrats battling Islamist movements seeking to overturn the old order. Since the military ouster of the Islamist president in Egypt last year, the new government and its backers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have launched a campaign across the region — in the news media, in politics and diplomacy, and by arming local proxies — to roll back what they see as an existential threat to their authority posed by Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.