CAIRO — Egypt is making an ambitious bid to place itself at the center of the fight against extremism across the Middle East.
Beyond fighting militants on the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt is trying to organize an international coalition against the Islamic State in Libya and helping Saudi Arabia defend its borders.
The growing military alliance is rooted in a shared belief among Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Gulf Arab leaders that extremism must be confronted region-wide.
It has been anchored with a quid pro quo: Gulf oil powerhouses Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have given Egypt an estimated $30 billion to rescue its damaged economy in return for Egypt providing military manpower alongside its Gulf counterparts.
With the alliance, this nation of 90 million people seeks to maneuver itself into a leadership role that has eluded it in recent years, first because of waning influence under former President Hosni Mubarak, then because of the turmoil that followed his 2011 ouster.
El-Sissi said in a radio interview that creating a U.N.-backed coalition is the best course of action to rid Libya of Islamic extremists.
A contingent of Egyptian troops is deployed on Saudi Arabia’s border with Iraq to help defend it against jihadi fighters, who recently carried out a deadly cross-border raid, according to Egyptian military and security officials.
On another front, Gulf nations have said they are considering what action to take in Yemen, where Shiite rebels known as Houthis — widely suspected of links to Iran — have taken power in the capital and are fighting to seize more of the country.
Egyptian airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Libya on Monday were in self-defense, el-Sissi said. The airstrikes were in retaliation for the mass beheading on a beach of a group of Egyptian Coptic Christians by a faction calling itself the Tripoli Province of the Islamic State.
“We will not allow them to cut off the heads of our children,” he said.
Asked whether he wanted to see a U.N.-backed coalition for Libya, he said: “I think there is no choice.”
Egypt already has military advisers on the Saudi-Yemeni border tasked mainly with developing a joint strategy with the Saudis to confront future hostilities, according to the officials, who have first-hand knowledge of Egypt’s plans. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the deployments.
Plans for the creation of a military alliance with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and possibly Jordan were back on track after a period of hiatus, said the officials, with France, Italy and Algeria now viewed as possible additional partners.
On Tuesday, el-Sissi called on the United Nations to approve a new coalition for airstrikes in Libya, where the extremists have set up their first major affiliate outside of Iraq and Syria. He argued in a radio interview that the Islamic State group in Libya is not just a threat to Egypt — its militants beheaded a group of Egyptian Christians in a video released this week — but to Europe as well.
“I want to say humanity will judge us if we do not fight against terrorism and protect humanity,” el-Sissi told France’s Europe 1 radio.
Egypt is likely to continue launching airstrikes against Islamic State positions focusing on arms depots and training camps, the officials said.
A second phase of the campaign could involve special forces targeting high-value assets inside Libya, they said.
“This is a war that is as or more crucial than the 1973 war,” said a top Egyptian official, alluding to Egypt’s last war against Israel, when Egyptian troops crossed the Suez Canal to storm fortified Israeli positions on the waterway’s east bank.
