World powers to curb Libyan weapon imports
Publish date: 20 January 2020
Issue Number: 856
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Policy
Several foreign powers on Sunday signed a landmark agreement to limit external interference in the war in Libya and to push the country's warring factions towards a peaceful end to the fighting. Speaking to journalists after a much-anticipated summit in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the agreement advanced a political process and ruled out a military solution to the conflict, which escalated. Al Jazeera reports that Merkel acknowledged that the road to peace in Libya would be long and arduous. 'We all agree that we should respect the arms embargo and that the arms embargo should be controlled more strongly than it has been in the past,' she said. The deal marks a new stage in diplomatic attempts towards ending the country's most recent bout of fighting, which began when renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based forces began an assault on the Tripoli last April.