Libya: US backs arming of government for IS fight

[jpak]

Source: BBC

The US and other world powers have said they are ready to arm Libya's UN-backed unity government to help it fight the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group.

Speaking in Vienna, US Secretary of State John Kerry said world powers would back Libya in seeking exemption from a UN arms embargo.

He said IS was a "new threat" to Libya and it was "imperative" it was stopped.

Last month, the Libyan government warned that IS could seize most of the country if it was not halted soon.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36300525

[J_J_]

1. Kinda ironic given the recent headline of Hillary approving sending Libya's weapons to Isis in Syria

The great investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, in two previous articles in the London Review of Books («Whose Sarin?» and «The Red Line and the Rat Line») has reported that the Obama Administration falsely blamed the government of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad for the sarin gas attack that Obama was trying to use as an excuse to invade Syria; and Hersh pointed to a report from British intelligence saying that the sarin that was used didn’t come from Assad’s stockpiles. Hersh also said that a secret agreement in 2012 was reached between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set up a sarin gas attack and blame it on Assad so that the US could invade and overthrow Assad. «By the terms of the agreement, funding came from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, with the support of MI6, was responsible for getting arms from Gaddafi’s arsenals into Syria». Hersh didn’t say whether these «arms» included the precursor chemicals for making sarin which were stockpiled in Libya, but there have been multiple independent reports that Libya’s Gaddafi possessed such stockpiles, and also that the US Consulate in Benghazi Libya was operating a «rat line» for Gaddafi’s captured weapons into Syria through Turkey.

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/04/28/seymour-hersh-hillary-approved-sending-libya-sarin-syrian-rebels.html

[4139]

4. Hillary's Libyan arms also went to Boko Harum, and that's the only reason

Boko Harum has been tough to destroy

[zeemike]

2. Invest in the arms industry, it's a money maker.

First we use them to destroy the government then we use them to fight the insurgence we encouraged to overthrow the government...makes money both ways.

No wonder we have perpetual war...and it will continue until the whole earth is consumed...like a cancer.

[Redwoods Red]

3. Don't want the kind of "foreign policy experience" that brought us to this point in Libya.

What a clusterfuck that Libyan intervention turned out to be.

[karynnj]

5. This is something backed by all the UN security council

I never thought I would link to RT, but am doing so because EVEN the Russian propaganda outlets are explaining this as an attempt to allow the new Libyan government to fight ISIS forces in parts of their country.

As RT says:

Members of the UN Security Council say they’re ready to lift an arms embargo and supply the Libyan government with weapons to combat Islamic State terrorists.

This decision is stated in an official communique of talks in Vienna, signed by all five permanent UN Security Council members (the US, Russia, France, UK and China), as well as representatives of over 15 other countries participating in the talks. It comes after Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj called for lifting arms embargo to support the national army earlier on Monday.

“The Government of National Accord has voiced its intention to submit appropriate arms embargo exemption requests to the UN Libya Sanctions Committee to procure necessary lethal arms and materiel to counter UN-designated terrorist groups and to combat [Islamic State or IS, formerly ISIS] throughout the country,” the communique states.

“We will fully support these efforts while continuing to reinforce the UN arms embargo."

https://www.rt.com/news/343215-unsc-arming-libya-isis/

This is actually a rare event where RT and the BBC are pretty much saying the same thing.

Note that the communique from the talks makes clear that this does NOT end the arms embargo, but recognizes the need of the government to get some arms to fight off ISIS.

The various maps showing who is in charge where show the complete mess that Libya is in 5 years after Qaddafi was removed and killed.

[pampango]

7. Here's a Guardian story on it: World powers prepared to arm UN-backed Libyan government

The US and other world powers have said they are ready to supply Libya’s internationally recognised government in Tripoli with specific weapons to counter Islamic State, as well as to train the new Libyan government’s presidential guard. They are also willing to train the Libyan coastguard to do more to stop people smuggling across the Mediterranean to Italy. Oil shipments from Libya are also to be resumed.

The announcements on Monday, designed to boost the new government of Fayez al-Sarraj as the sole legitimate authority in Libya, were made following a meeting in Vienna of diplomats including those from Europe, the US and the Middle East.

Behind the scenes at the summit, time was spent trying to persuade the Egyptian government and United Arab Emirates to stop supporting the forces of Gen Khalifa Haftar, the military leader in Tobruk who has refused to recognise the Tripoli government even though it has UN recognition.

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, ruled out direct military intervention, and said the partial lifting of the arms embargo would have to be carefully sculpted. Libya is awash with weapons, but government forces may lack the right ammunition.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/16/world-powers-prepared-arm-un-backed-libyan-government

[karynnj]

9. Thanks,

This sounds like a prudent international effort to try to help Libya get out of the complete mess that it is in. Some of the earlier stories suggested that Italy might intervene - it was the colonial power there decades ago.

In addition to many stories that Italy was wary, there have been articles that have begun to suggest that they might.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21698322-carabinieri-may-not-be-marching-tripoli-just-yet-italy-ponders-military-intervention

and

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/04/italy-isil-libya-diplomacy-fails-160412114429858.html

[elljay]

6. Libya has a government? nt

[Bigmack]

8. I have a revolutionary plan...

It's called "STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE AREA".

Everything we have done in the ME has turned into a cluster-fuck....and that includes the "Goat Option".

For once... can't we play some version of "Let's You and Him Fight", and let the area sort some very old animosities... and some new ones... out?

Look at the fucking list of armed players in the Syrian mess alone:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_armed_groups_in_the_Syrian_Civil_War

"I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar soaked fingers out of the business of these (Third World) nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own. And if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the `haves' refuse to share with the `have-nots' by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don’t want and above all don’t want crammed down their throats by Americans."
Gen. David Shoup, United States Marine Commandant Medal of Honor recipient. 2 Purple Hearts
I’m proud to say that Gen. Shoup was my Commandant during the first part of my time in the Corps.