Downing Street waiting to see whether peace efforts succeed before joining US and France in calling for intervention

A British decision on whether to join western powers considering direct military intervention against Islamic State in Libya is likely to rest on whether long-running efforts to form a viable Libyan national unity government will materialise in the coming weeks.



The Pentagon and the French government have been pressing for direct action following a meeting in Paris last week, and Italy has said it would consider involvement. Downing Street said on Monday that no decisions had been taken regarding British troops and fended off questions about whether they would be deployed in a combat or training role.

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The Ministry of Defence has not confirmed reports it is willing to send as many as 1,000 troops to the country, which has fallen into chaos following the violent overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and allied air strikes in 2011.

Agreement on a Libyan national unity government was reached in December but so far has been rejected by rival Libyan parliaments, including the one recognised by the international community, in a dispute about ministries.

David Cameron will be reluctant to seek cross-party support in the Commons for further UK military action so soon after investing much political capital in winning support for airstrikes in Syria.

There is at present no support for airstrikes from the Africa Union, and it is likely that the Commons foreign affairs select committee will shortly produce a scathing report on the failure of western post-conflict planning after the 2011 toppling of Gaddafi.



Jeremy Corbyn, the opposition leader, is likely to oppose any intervention, and the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, would face a further dilemma over whether to support further military action against Isis.

If any action does go ahead it may be possible that British involvement would be so limited that it would not warrant Commons authorisation. Britain was previously active in the skies above Syria largely through surveillance and air-to-air refuelling without being involved in airstrikes. UK intelligence and special forces would not need Commons permission to operate in Libya. Britain has already sent a small number of troops to Sudan as part of an international peacekeeping force.

The talk of western military action in Libya restarted after the US defence secretary, Ash Carter, said last Thursday that allies were preparing options to prevent Isis from establishing training sites in Libya and welcoming foreign fighters in the way it had done in Iraq and Syria.

Last Friday Gen Joseph Dunford Jr, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said military officials were “looking to take decisive military action” against Isis.

The Pentagon has sent special forces to the area to look at military options to drive Isis from its base along a lengthy strip of coastline around the city of Sirte that lies between Benghazi and Tripoli.

It is claimed that as many as 3,000 Isis fighters are active in the country taking advantage of the political chaos to seize land and oilfields. The fighters may have gone to Libya because the now relatively secure Turkish-Syrian border has made it more difficult for potential recruits to join Isis in Syria.

Isis has used heavy weapons to launch attacks against a series of oil facilities and there has been an increase in suicide missions. US officials say there has been an influx of Isis fighters into Libya, partly as a result of the stronger controls on the flow of fighters into Syria from Turkey.

Italy’s defence minister, Roberta Pinotti, told Italian media last week that her country was considering joining the USs, Britain and France in military intervention to stabilise Libya. Pinotti told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that western powers would intervene only if requested to do so by Libyan authorities.

In an interview on French television Sunday, the French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said there was an urgent need for a political solution in Libya. “I’ve been very worried about Libya since September 2014,” Le Drian said. “There they are just 200 miles from [the Italian island of] Lampedusa, and they are expanding.”

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The French minister said there was a risk that Isis fighters would take advantage of the good weather to cross the Mediterranean and “mingle” with migrants.

“Everyone is aware of the risk that the conflict in Syria and Iraq, where we are seeing some positive results, will spread to become a new conflict in Libya,” he said. He that a political solution in Libya was “the only way to eradicate the problem”.

Le Drian concluded: “There must be a national unity government. There is a serious political process under way, supported by the UN security council. It is urgent.”

The African Union’s commissioner for peace and security, Smaïl Chergui, said of the Isis threat: “This is something that concerns us all and which demands vigorous action, but we can only do that if we have a government in place and Libyan forces that we can equip.

He said it was the union’s opinion that immediate military action “would further complicate the situation”.

In recent months the UN has struggled to persuade two groups of Libyan officials who claim to be the country’s rightful leaders to band together. On Monday the parliament that is recognised by the international community rejected a unity government proposal.