EU Agrees on New Patrols to Stop Arms Flows in Libya

The European Union will launch a new naval and air mission in the Eastern Mediterranean to stop more weapons from reaching the warring factions in Libya, foreign ministers agreed on Monday.

 

The agreement was reached after Austria lifted its veto.

 

“We all agree to create a mission that blocks the flow of arms into Libya,” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio told reporters.

 

The UN-recognized government in Tripoli is under attack from the forces of Gen Khalifa Haftar, which control most of eastern and southern Libya.

 

Gen Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) has support from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, France and Russia, while the Tripoli government has the backing of Turkey, Qatar and Italy, among others.

 

The fighting has killed and injured thousands of people, and forced more than 150,000 to flee their homes.

 

The EU’s new naval and air mission is to operate in the eastern Mediterranean, away from the migrant-smuggling routes from Libya, which have caused bitter divisions in the EU.

 

Austria led opposition to renewing EU naval patrols off the Libyan coast, but finally accepted a new mission with a different mandate from Operation Sophia, which had sought to stop people-smuggling gangs.

 

On Monday, Libyans from a number of cities have gathered in the capital, Tripoli, to celebrate nine years since the beginning of an uprising that eventually toppled Muammar Gaddafi after 42 years in power.

 

Waving flags and playing music, the large crowds took to the streets to mark the 2011 uprising that began in the coastal city of Benghazi.