UN - Libya's foreign minister urged the UN
Security Council on Wednesday to lift an arms embargo to allow the country's
military to fight jihadists, amid growing alarm over the threat from the
Islamic State group.
Mohammed al-Dairi made the appeal to the
15-member council after Islamic State militants beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic
Christians, triggering worldwide revulsion and condemnation.
"Libya needs a decisive stance from
the international community to help us build our national army's capacity and
this would come through a lifting of the embargo on weapons, so that our army
can receive material and weapons, so as to deal with this rampant
terrorism," the foreign minister said.
Dairi stressed he was not seeking an
international military intervention, but that there was no time to lose to
equip the Libyan army to confront the emboldened extremists.
As Libya pressed for urgent military aid,
UN envoy Bernardino Leon said political efforts to broker a deal on forming a
unity government able to address the threat from extremists could soon yield
results.
"I am hopeful that a political
agreement can be reached soon. The differences between the parties are not
insurmountable," Leon said.
Egypt was pushing for a UN resolution
easing restrictions on weapons sales to Libya, but Western diplomats expressed
reservations, saying a political deal must be the priority.
"While the political solution is an
absolute necessity, it is not an alternative to militarily confronting
terrorism," Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the council.
Jordan presents resolution
Acting on behalf of Arab nations, Jordan
circulated a draft resolution late on Wednesday calling for an end to the arms
embargo against Libya's "legitimate" government and directing a
council committee to propose ways to cut off weapons deliveries to militias.
Egypt had earlier proposed a naval blockade
to prevent arms from reaching the jihadists.
The draft resolution obtained by AFP
"emphasises the necessity to provide support and assistance to the
legitimate authorities in Libya... particularly by providing the Libyan
government with the necessary security assistance."
It also called on militias controlling
Tripoli to withdraw to allow the return of the internationally recognised
government to the capital.
Diplomats said negotiations on the draft
text were scheduled for Friday but no date was set for a vote.
The UN embargo was imposed in 2011 when
Libya descended into violence after the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.
Western powers are wary of committing to an
easing of the arms ban in Libya, which is still awash with weapons and where
rival militias are battling for control of its cities and oil wealth.
A council diplomat said lifting the arms
embargo would be tantamount to pouring fuel on the Libyan fire.
Libya has two rival governments and
parliaments, one recognised by the international community and the other with
ties to Islamists.
A US-led coalition is carrying out air
strikes against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq, and the foreign ministers from
Egypt and Libya lamented a lack of international strategy to address the ISIS
threat in Libya.
Libya's neighbour Tunisia said it too
opposed military intervention, instead calling for a political solution.
That echoed a statement on Tuesday by the US,
Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain that an ongoing UN effort to get
Libya's warring sides to agree on a unity government was the "best
hope" for peace.
Islamist threat
Libya has descended into chaos since the
2011 revolt, with the internationally recognised government forced to flee to
the country's east and militias in control of Tripoli and other main cities.
Some militias have pledged allegiance to
the Islamic State group, which this week released a video of the gruesome mass
beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians.
"We are dealing with a phenomenon that
is now becoming a front, stretching from the Middle East to North Africa,
covering the Mediterranean region and the Sahel," the Libyan foreign
minister told the council.
The country's main militias, including the
Islamist-backed Fajr Libya coalition that has declared a rival government in
Tripoli and has been involved in the peace talks, have not linked up with ISIS
jihadists.
But Italian Foreign Minister Paolo
Gentiloni warned of the threat of such an alliance.
"There is an evident risk of an
alliance being forged between local groups and Daesh, and it is a situation
that has to be monitored with maximum attention," Gentiloni said, using an
Arabic acronym for the Islamic State organisation.
The chaos in Libya has contributed to a
dramatic increase in the number of migrants attempting to travel across the
Mediterranean to Europe.
