TRIPOLI: Libya’s new unity government said Tuesday it wants warplanes and helicopters to fight extremists 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 Daesh group and other extremist groups,” Deputy Prime Minister Mussa Al-Kony told AFP.
On Monday, the United States, Italy and Libya’s friends and neighbors agreed to arm its fledgling Government of National Accord to confront the threat from Daesh 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 Muammar Qaddafi’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 and other terrorist groups.”
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 Daesh launched probes westwards out of Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown which it has controlled since last June.
International backing to lift the embargo, in place since 2011, is “fundamental to the creation of a strong army... capable of fighting the Daesh group and other extremist groups,” Deputy Prime Minister Mussa Al-Kony told AFP.
On Monday, the United States, Italy and Libya’s friends and neighbors agreed to arm its fledgling Government of National Accord to confront the threat from Daesh 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 Muammar Qaddafi’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 and other terrorist groups.”
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 Daesh launched probes westwards out of Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown which it has controlled since last June.
