EU still bickering over Libya arms embargo mission

BRUSSELS: EU member states are still bickering over the details of a new naval mission to enforce an arms embargo on war-torn Libya, the bloc’s diplomatic chief said on Monday.

The 27 states agreed in principle to the mission in the Mediterranean -- dubbed Operation Irene -- last month, but they are still at odds over what to do with any migrants who might be picked up during its work.

Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio said his government still rejects using its ports to disembark such migrants, insisting it needs to focus its energies on fighting the novel coronavirus pandemic. But EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell insisted that with "a bit of goodwill" the mission could still be up and running by the end of March as planned.

"A lot of progress has been made but there are still some issues pending," Borrell told reporters after talks with the 27 foreign ministers, held by videoconference because of the pandemic.

"There are some issues where there is not agreement between member states... mainly on the disembarkation procedures in case the ships of this new navy mission had to deal with some migrants being rescued from the sea." An effective arms embargo is seen as crucial to stabilising Libya, where the UN-recognised Tripoli government is under attack from the forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of the country’s south and east.