The German Federal Parliament approved a memorandum on sending soldiers to participate in the EU’s Operation ‘IRINI’, to monitor the UN arms embargo on Libya.
According to the Turkish newspaper ‘Daily Sabah’, Germany will send 300 soldiers to the Mediterranean Sea, for a one year period.
The European Union, announced in a statement that the naval operation would include the French battleship ‘Jean Barr’, marine surveillance planes from Luxembourg and German soldiers patrolling.
The French anti-aircraft frigate, Jean Barr was deployed on Monday, off the coast of western Libya. It was chosen to monitor the arms embargo, due to its detection abilities, and to help prevent the risk of instability in the region, through cooperation with other European partners.
Italian radar site ‘Itamilradar’ has revealed details of the first mission of the operation “we tracked the first mission as part of the new EUNAVFOR MED “IRINI” process, as a Fairchild Dornier SA-227DC (N919CK) aircraft departed from Sigonella AB this morning around 06:00 a.m., undertaking a 6-hour patrol mission off eastern Libya. The plane is again at Sigonella Airbase on the Italian island of Sicily, at 12:32 CET”.
The operation has a series of secondary tasks, such as the prevention of illicit oil exports from Libya, capacity building and training of the Libyan coast guard, and supporting the fight against human trafficking, and their networks.
The Head of the Presidential Council for the Government of National Accord, Fayez Al-Sarraj rejected the operation, due to the IRINI taking place only at sea. He argued it failed to monitor Libya’s airspace, and land borders, where he claims the majority of Haftar’s arms come through.