Powers renew vow to uphold Libya arms embargo

MUNICH — Countries with interests in Libya’s civil war recommitted themselves Sunday to uphold a barely working arms embargo, four weeks after a peace summit in Berlin was followed by numerous new arms violations, officials from Germany and the U.N. said.

Germany and the U.N., which co-hosted the Jan. 19 Berlin summit, gathered foreign ministers and other officials from a dozen countries on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to try to bolster a drive to cut off outside military support for

Libya’s warring parties.

The countries involved include the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, along with Italy, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Sunday’s meeting formally launched an international follow-up committee on Libya.

At the Berlin summit, participants agreed to respect the arms embargo, hold off on military support to Libya’s warring parties and push them to reach a full cease-fire. But U.N. Secretary-general Antonio Guterres says that agreement has been repeatedly violated by continuing arms deliveries and an escalation in fighting.

On Sunday, the participants “had a discussion on the deplorable recent violations of the arms embargo, renewed their determination to contribute to its thorough implementation and welcomed progress regarding more efficient monitoring of the embargo,” the German and U.N. hosts said in a statement.

Libya has been in turmoil since 2011.

Since the Berlin summit, the rival Libyan military factions have met in Geneva in a U.n.-led effort to forge a lasting truce. A first round of talks ended without officials signing an agreement, but Maas said a second round will begin in Geneva on Tuesday.