EU agrees on Libya arms embargo mission

BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) will launch its new naval mission to enforce an arms embargo on Libya by the end of the month, after member states agreed its terms on Thursday.

Diplomatic sources said that ambassadors from the 27 EU countries approved the mission, dubbed Operation Irini after the Greek word for peace, after clearing last-minute objections.

Greece has agreed to be the landing point for any migrants rescued in the course of the mission, though its primary purpose is to enforce the embargo.

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.

The new mission replaces Operation Sophia, set up in 2015 to fight people-smuggling across the Mediterranean at the height of Europe’s migrant crisis.

What to do with any migrants picked up during Irini’s operations was the last major sticking point, with Italy earlier this week insisting it would not receive them.

EU naval vessels, provided and crewed by member state navies, will operate in the eastern Mediterranean with the authority to board ships suspected of delivering arms, a diplomatic source said.

Irini will start when Sophia ends on March 31, with a renewable one-year mandate, though ministers will review it every four months to check it is not having a “pull effect” -- encouraging migrants to set out on risky crossings over the Mediterranean.

The agreement in February was finally reached over objections from Austria and Hungary, which feared that reviving the mission would create a de facto rescue fleet that would ferry migrants across the sea to Europe.

Separately, Greek authorities arrested a Syrian man after finding 12 Egyptian teenagers hidden in his van following a car chase through the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki early Thursday, police said.

Police said they arrested the 22-year-old who had allegedly picked up the teenagers, all boys aged between 15 and 17, from the Greek-albanian border and had been driving them south towards Thessaloniki when he failed to stop for a police check.

The boys told authorities they had arrived in Albania by ship from Egypt, and had then made their way to the Greek border, where they were picked up by the Syrian.

Greek police said the Syrian was charged with illegally transporting migrants, dangerous driving, theft and failing to stop for a police check. He was also fined 150 euros (about $160) for violating Greece’s new lockdown orders as part of measures imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.