On Friday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, will visit the headquarters of the operation EunavForMed Irini for the implementation of the UN arms embargo on Libya, to announce renewing its mandate for two new years, EU sources told ANSA.
Borrell will travel to Rome on Thursday to meet with Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini for that matter, the sources added.
Meanwhile a UN report of the Panel of Experts on Libya said Tuesday an embargo meant to prevent the sale of arms to Libya, imposed in 2011, is “totally ineffective”.
The report highlighted the “ample and clear” violations of the ban. The commission that drafted the document, including six experts, indicated as responsible the countries backing the various sides involved in the conflict, as well as mercenaries and non-institutional actors like the Russian Wagner group or the former chief of military security company Blackwater, Erik Prince.
The 550-page report covers a period from October 2019 to January 2021 during which the “arms embargo remains totally ineffective”, it said.
“In the case of those states supporting the sides in conflict, the violations are ample, obvious and in complete contempt of sanctions. Their control of the provision chain complicates the identification, contrast or blockade” of arms imports.” The report added.
