UN to deploy 200 soldiers to protect its Libya base

Europe must 'speak with one voice' in the North African country, UN Special Envoy Ghassan Salamé says.

Ghassan Salame (C), Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations for Libya, walks following a meeting in Benghazi on August 10, 2017 | Abdullah Doma/AFP via Getty Images

U.N. Special Envoy Ghassan Salamé said the organization will send at least 200 “blue helmet” military personnel to protect its base in Libya as soon as next month, significantly expanding the U.N.’s mission to the country.

“I think they can be deployed already in the coming weeks,” Salamé said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa published Friday. Adding somewhere in the region of 200 to 250 peacekeepers to guard its base in the capital “will allow us, by the beginning of October, to lead a significant part of our activities in Libya,” he said.

Talks on the possible deployment of soldiers to the U.N. base in Libya have been ongoing for several years. In 2014, the then Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi initiated a push in favor of adding troops, arguing it could help further stabilize the North African country — from where a significant number of migrants depart for Sicily.

Salamé told La Stampa he took issue with Europe’s divisions on foreign policy in the region. European nations must “speak with one voice” in Libya, he said, because excessive activism of individual states driven by national interests creates further confusion for the local authorities and population.

“There are six or seven different operations in front of their eyes. Too many cooks spoil the broth,” he said.

There are about 140 militias in Libya, a challenge for the Tripoli-based government of Fāyez al-Sarrāj, which has been recognized by the U.N. In July, al-Sarrāj and Khalifa Haftar — the military strongman who controls the east of the country — met in Paris to broker a deal to hold elections in spring 2018.

However, Salamé cautioned “in Libya, the last elections didn’t bring about a change, but only an accumulation of institutions. Instead of replacing certain figures, they have added other.”

Noting that “presidential elections would be the first ones ever,” Salamé said: “One needs to be sure that everybody will accept the final result.”

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