Rome, May 7, 2020 – The European Union has launched a delayed naval mission to enforce an arms embargo on Libya, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Thursday. Operation IRINI, currently headquartered in Rome, aims to halt the flow of arms into Libya, where the UN-recognised Tripoli government is under attack from the forces of strongman Khalifa. The sea mission began on Monday with the French naval vessel Jean Bart and a maritime patrol aircraft contributed by Luxembourg, the EU said in a statement. “It shows EU commitment to peace in Libya, even at times when member states are battling the coronavirus pandemic,” Borrell said in the statement.
World leaders agreed to uphold the UN embargo at a Berlin peace conference in January. The mission’s launch had been held up for nearly a month by bickering between Italy and Greece over who should hold the command. The EU agreed to rotate the operation’s command between the two countries every six months.
