The European Union has agreed to deploy warships to cease the flow of weapons into war-torn Libya, reported BBC.
In a meeting on Monday in Brussels, Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat, announced that foreign ministers of 27 EU countries have reached an agreement to launch a new operation with naval ships, planes, and satellites in order to enforce the UN arms embargo on Libya.
“We all agreed to create a mission to block the entry of arms into Libya,” said Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi di Maio.
According to the agreement, ships under the new mission, to be known as Operation EU Active Surveillance, will patrol about 60 miles (100km) off the coast of Libya, which is an area of the Mediterranean that is mainly used as a route to send weapons into the country.
The new mission will replace 2015’s Operation Sophia that was aimed at stopping human trafficking from North Africa to Europe as well as enforcing a UN arms embargo. Operation’s Sophia’s sea patrols were suspended in March last year, after Italy’s then government threatened to veto the entire operation, accusing its EU partners of a lack of solidarity.
Luxembourgish Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said details of the new mission will be finalized in the weeks ahead, however, it is expected to have three levels “in the air, satellite and maritime.”
The EU is expecting the operation, focused on the eastern part of the Libyan coast, to be up and running by the end of next month.
Proper implementation of the arms embargo is important to stabilize the Libyan conflict between Gen Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) and the UN-backed Tripoli government.
Haftar’s LNA has assistance from Egypt, France, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates, while the Tripoli government has the backing of Turkey, Qatar, and Italy, among others. Turkey had recently sent thousands of soldiers to Libya.
