{"id":243662,"date":"2016-05-15T06:05:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T06:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/un-brokered-libyan-pm-wants-un-arms-embargo-dropped-amid-uk-troop-row\/"},"modified":"2016-05-15T06:05:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-15T06:05:13","slug":"un-brokered-libyan-pm-wants-un-arms-embargo-dropped-amid-uk-troop-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/un-brokered-libyan-pm-wants-un-arms-embargo-dropped-amid-uk-troop-row\/","title":{"rendered":"UN-brokered Libyan PM wants UN arms embargo dropped amid UK troop row"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.05\/thumbnail\/5730730dc461885e0b8b4580.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        Amid rumors of a 1,000-strong UK deployment, Libya\u2019s new leader Fayez al-Sarraj has called on the UN, which brokered his premiership, to drop the arms embargo and asset freeze on the North African state.<\/p>\n<div readability=\"78\">\n<p>Al-Sarraj used a speech at the Arab League in Cairo on Sunday to argue: \u201c<em>It doesn\u2019t make sense that the international community supports our war against terrorism, and forbids us from arming ourselves<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A UN ban forbids the sale of weapons to Libya and an array of fund-freezing rules. Al-Sarraj\u2019s call to have the ban lifted was backed by Egypt\u2019s strongman president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xNmU4n2zI_Q\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After the lifting of the Gaddafi-era embargo in 2004 \u2013 following the dictator\u2019s famous desert meeting with then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair \u2013 British arms flowed freely.<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, a year before the US-led war removed Gaddafi, the UK reportedly granted over \u00a334 million in arms export licenses to Libya.<\/p>\n<p>The embargo was re-adopted for a further four years in 2015 by the UN Security Council amid fears that arms could fall into the wrong hands.<\/p>\n<p>The destruction of the Gaddafi regime in 2011 saw the country\u2019s armories broken open and the region flooded with weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Some reports indicate these fell into the hands of jihadist groups and destabilized countries as far away as Mali.<\/p>\n<p>Another result of the 2011 war was the civil war that exploded in Libya between rival militias. The unrest led to calls for a 6,000 to 10,000-strong Italian-led military brigade deploy to the country to shore up security.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rP0P3nQVMXM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The brigade is projected to include 1,000 British troops, a plan which has met with wide resistance within the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Last Monday, Middle East minister Tobias Ellwood told the Commons no vote on the deployment would be required.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>It is training and mentoring. It is not an operational initiative so there is no requirement for a vote in parliament. Please do not expect one on the issue,<\/em>\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n<p>If the lobbying is successful and the embargo is dropped the re-opened Libyan market is likely to see arms companies fighting to sell their wares in the country \u2013 with British firms in the vanguard of a potential military equipment gold rush.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/342363-libya-arms-embargo-un\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amid rumors of a 1,000-strong UK deployment, Libya\u2019s new leader Fayez al-Sarraj has called on the UN, which brokered his premiership, to drop the arms embargo and asset freeze on the North African state. Al-Sarraj used a speech at the Arab League in Cairo on Sunday to argue: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense that the international [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-243662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}