Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj of the Government of National Accord (GNA) has officially rejected the European Union’s new surveillance mission off the coast of Libya. The mission, called Operation “IRINI”, is aimed at monitoring the UN arms embargo on Libya.
In a message to the United Nations Security Council, Al-Sarraj explained that no prior consultations were held with the GNA, as stipulated in the Security Council resolutions.
He argued that the EU operation turns a blind eye to Libya’s eastern land borders, where weapons and ammunition flow freely into the country to support the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
Operation IRINI’s core task is to monitor breaches of the UN arms embargo, as agreed upon at the Berlin Conference in January 2020.
The German Federal Government, announced its participation in the operation, providing a force of 300 soldiers until the end of the mission’s mandate in 2021.