A top UN official has described the arms embargo on Libya as a “joke” and said the pause in fighting was “holding by a thread”, in a gloomy assessment of the prospects for peace in the North African country. Stephanie Williams, the deputy UN envoy, said Libya was “awash with weaponry” and called on the international community to do more to curb their interference in the conflict. “We all need to step up,” she told reporters at a security conference in Munich on Sunday.
She was speaking after the launch of the International Follow-up Committee on Libya (IFCL) – a group of foreign ministers, the UN, EU, African Union and Arab League who are trying to bring an end to the violent conflict. Last month at a conference in Berlin, Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other foreign powers promised to end all interference. The conference also agreed to enforce the arms embargo and push for political talks between the parties to the conflict.
But fighting resumed soon after the Berlin meeting ended, dashing hopes of a ceasefire. The UN has said “several” countries that participated in the conference subsequently shipped foreign fighters, advanced weapons and armoured vehicles to Libyan groups. The UAE and Egypt have long violated the arms embargo. They are the main backers of General Khalifa Haftar, the military strongman who triggered the latest crisis bylaunching an offensive on Tripoli last April. Hundreds of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner private security group are also fighting on his side.
Turkey has armed the besieged UN-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and announced in December it would deploy troops to support the Tripoli-based administration. The Libya crisis has stoked anxiety in the EU because of its potential impact on sensitive subjects from migration into Europe to Russia’s growing influence in the Mediterranean.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Wednesday demanding the warring parties commit to a “lasting ceasefire”. Ms Williams said it “signalled to Libya that theinternational community has not abandoned them”.