The Commander of the European Union’s Operation IRINI, Admiral Fabio Agostini and the Acting Head of the EU Border Assistance Mission in Libya (EUBAM), Peter Bastian Halberg, signed an administrative agreement.
The event was attended by the Head of the EU Delegation (EUDEL) to Libya, José Sabadell. This came during the recent visit by Agostini and Halberg to Tripoli.
As part of the agreement, logistical and organizational assistance and other services will be supplied to support IRINI. The support of EUBAM will be particularly valuable, in view of the future training of the Libyan Navy and Coast Guard.
Last week, Agostini announced that they have inspected about 1,400 ships and 130 flights, in addition to monitoring 16 ports, oil stations, and 25 airports.
“We made 61 consensual visits onboard commercial ships and we recently inspected 6 commercial vessels, one of which was diverted to a Greek port to prevent the delivery of fuel to military aircraft,” Agostini added.
He explained that since the start of the operation they have submitted 17 special reports to the United Nations, with evidence of illegal arms trade. He stressed that although the operation began at the outbreak of COVID-19, it has already yielded clear, balanced, and impartial results.
IRINI is a naval mission launched by the European Union in May. Its objective is to monitor the implementation of the UN arms embargo imposed on Libya and prevent the flow of weapons to the country.