Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumFrance warns Libya as ISIS gains ground
PARIS - Rival sides in chaos-ridden Libya must reach a deal to create a new unity government in order to stop Islamic State jihadists from taking over, the French defence minister said Sunday.
"There must be an intra-Libyan accord between these two rival factions, or else Daesh will win," Jean-Yves Le Drian told Europe 1 radio, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
"It's urgent... Daesh is taking territory starting from Sirte and seeking to move down towards the oil fields," Le Drian added.
ISIS took over the coastal city of Sirte in June, the hometown of veteran dictator Moamer Gathafi who was toppled and killed in a 2011 uprising.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=74117
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)mirror France. How did this mess get where it is today in Libya...geeze. Talk about a brass set.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)And yeah, that's why I posted it, the chutzpah of France "warning" Libya about ISIS.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)And, I wonder if that Libyan "rat line" for weapons that Sy Hersh pointed out last year is still in operation. Libya hasn't gotten much mention lately as to what's going on there. But, if its still a hot bed for weapons transfer one would think there would have been some news. Or......could be its better to just keep quiet about it?
KoKo
(84,711 posts)(Seems the large Cache of Libya Weapons left after Gaddafi overthrow (mentioned by Sy Hersh) has been long since used up and new source of supplies were found. Notice the mention of Oil Control in the first article.)
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Leaked emails show UAE shipped weapons to Libya, violated UN resolution
Dania Akkad
Last update:
Friday 13 November 2015 9:52 UTC
#LibyaCrisis
Leaked emails also suggest that the UN was aware of the conflict of interest between its Libya envoy and the UAE
The United Arab Emirates shipped weapons to its allies in Libya in violation of a UN resolution and with the apparent knowledge of the US government, according to leaked Emirati emails shared with the New York Times this week.
The emails also make it clear that the United Nations was aware of a potential conflict of interest between its envoy to Libya and the Gulf country. Last week, MEE published another email showing that Bernadino Leon, the UN envoy to Libya, was covertly working for the Gulf country to support one side in the war even while mediating between the two parties.
Another leaked email, reported by The Guardian last week, showed that Leon received an offer for a $50,000-a-month job training diplomats in the UAE in June. After negotiating the job's housing allowance details throughout the summer while concurrently conducting negotiations, he is thought to be starting as the director general of the Emirates Diplomatic Academy in December.
The new emails show that the country's diplomats were aware that their activities violated a UN embargo, outlining in the correspondence how they might hide what they were doing from a UN monitoring panel.
"The fact of the matter is that the UAE violated the UN Security Council Resolution on Libya and continues to do so," Ahmed al-Qasimi, a senior Emirati diplomat, wrote in a 4 August email to Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's ambassador to the UN.
If the diplomats had complied with the procedures outlined by the UN resolution, Qasimi wrote, it would "expose how deeply we are involved in Libya ... We should try to provide a cover to lessen the damage."
Libya is in the midst of a civil war to determine control of Africas largest oil reserves.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/leaks-show-uae-shipped-weapons-libya-violated-un-resolution-1712843977
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UN envoy seeks 'full clarification' on questions of UAE arms shipments to Libya
#LibyaCrisis
UAE minister releases statement saying country has observed 'various parameters' without mentioning questions of arms shipments
In late February, a UN panel of experts set up to monitor the arms embargo imposed in 2011 found that companies in more than a dozen countries had been shipping arms to groups fighting in Libya in violation of the embargo and that the country's capacity to prevent such shipments was "almost non-existent".
Companies from the UAE, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan, among others, were found to be arming various sides, according to the comprehensive report.
MEE asked Farhan Haq, a spokesperson in the UN Secretary-General's office, late on Thursday whether a UN investigation had been initiated following the panel's report and, if not, whether one would be launched given the revelations in the leaked emails.
Haq said that the UN does not discuss information claimed to be leaked and that he could not speak for the panel of experts, which was a separate body from the secretary-general's office.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/un-envoy-seek-clarification-questions-uae-arms-shipments-libya-1890172771