The accusation that UAE war planes flew sorties from Egyptian air bases in mid- to late August to bomb pro-Islamist militia forces in the Libyan capital of Tripoli fits a wider trend of speculation about Gulf states’ involvement in Libya’s slow-burn civil war. But the allegation is far from proven, despite having originally come from United States government officials. Suggestions that the failing North African state is becoming an arena for a regional proxy war between the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt on one side and Qatar on the other are also exaggerated.