Libya unity government says it wants warplanes to fight IS

An image grab taken from a propaganda
video released on March 17, 2014 by the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL)’s al-Furqan Media allegedly shows
ISIL fighters raising their weapons as
they stand on a vehicle mounted with the
trademark Jihadists flag at an
undisclosed location in the Anbar
province. The jihadist Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant group has
spearheaded a major offensive that
began on June 9, 2014 and has since
overrun all of Iraq’s northern Nineveh
province. AFP PHOTO / HO / AL-
FURQAN MEDIA
Libya’s new unity government said
Tuesday it wants warplanes and
helicopters to fight jihadists as it hailed
international support for lifting a
longstanding embargo on weapons
sales.
International backing to lift the
embargo, in place since 2011, is
“fundamental to the creation of a
strong army… capable of fighting the
jihadist Islamic State group and other
extremist groups”, Deputy Prime
Minister Mussa al-Kony told AFP.
On Monday, the United States, Italy and
Libya’s friends and neighbours agreed
to arm its fledgling Government of
National Accord to confront the threat
from IS as the GNA seeks to assert its
authority.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said a
25-member group agreed to exempt the
GNA from the UN arms embargo
imposed since the uprising against
Moamer Kadhafi’s regime five years
ago.
“State institutions have collapsed
because the army itself fell apart. Our
priority today is to unify this institution
and revive it, but without weapons we
cannot do this,” Kony said.
“What we want is to acquire all sorts of
weaponry… but our priority is aircraft,”
he said.
“We want pilots, helicopters and
warplanes.”
On Monday in Vienna, GNA chief Fayez
al-Sarraj requested both equipment and
training which the international
ministers present were ready to
support.
World powers, Kerry said, will support
the GNA’s exemption “from the UN
arms embargo to acquire those
weapons and bullets needed to fight
Daesh (IS) and other terrorist groups”.
IS has seized upon the chaos pervading
Libya in the wake of the revolution to
carve out a sizeable enclave around the
Mediterranean city of Sirte.
The Vienna talks came as Sarraj has
sought for the past month and a half to
assert the GNA’s authority in Tripoli
and as IS launched probes westwards
out of Sirte, Kadhafi’s hometown which
it has controlled since last June.
Political strife and a security vacuum in
Libya since 2014 have made it easier for
IS to establish itself, constituting a
direct threat both to the country’s
neighbours and to Europe.
Europe fears the jihadists could use
Sirte’s port and airport as a
springboard to attack the continent.
The international community,
particularly European powers, are also
concerned about a stream of refugees
and migrants crossing the
Mediterranean from Libya’s unsecured
coast.