UN: Libya sanctions violated

‘Trump ally and UAE firms involved in plans to take over Tripoli’

NEW YORK: American security contractor Erik Prince, a close ally of former US President Donald Trump, violated the UN arms embargo against Libya along with three United Arab Emirates-based companies and their top managers during an operation to help a rebel military commander take the capital Tripoli, UN experts said.

In a key section of a report to the UN Security Council obtained on Saturday, the panel of experts outlined “a well-funded private military company operation” called “Project Opus” designed to provide military equipment to eastern-based commander Khalifa Hifter.

“The Project Opus plan also included a component to kidnap or terminate individuals regarded as high value targets in Libya,” the experts said.

The plan was first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Oil-rich Libya was plunged into chaos after a 2011 Nato-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi and split the country between a UN-supported government in Tripoli and rival authorities based in the country’s east, each side backed by an array of local militias as well as regional and foreign powers.

In April 2019, Hifter and his forces, backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, launched an offensive to try and capture Tripoli.

His campaign collapsed after Turkey stepped up its military support of the UN-supported government. The panel of experts report said it identified “Project Opus” in June 2019.

It was designed to have private military companies provide Hifter’s forces with “armed assault rotary wing aviation, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft, maritime interdiction, cyber, UAV, and intelligence fusion and targeting capabilities,” experts said.

Prince became involved when Jordanian authorities became aware of elements of the plan “and suspended the auction” of surplus military helicopters to Hifter on June 18, 2019.

The panel said it therefore “finds that Erik Prince” violated the 2011 Security Council resolution imposing an arms embargo against Libya “in that, at the very least, he ... assisted in the evasion of, the provisions of the arms embargo in Libya.” — AP