Top officials reaffirm commitment to uphold Libya arms embargo

Top officials from about a dozen countries discussed the Libya crisis at the Munich Security Conference. They reaffirmed a commitment to respect an arms embargo and support a ceasefire in the war-torn country.
Germany and the United Nations hosted the meeting, attempting to cut off external military support for the warring parties in the country, as the UAE and Turkey refuse to stop arming their allies.
Stephanie Williams, the UN Deputy Special Representative to Libya, said that the arms embargo has become a joke. “It’s complicated because there are violations by land, sea and air, but it needs to be monitored and there needs to be accountability”, she added.
Military officers from Libya’s UN-backed government, GNA, led by the prime minister, Fayez al-Serraj, and representatives of the rival militia of warlord Khalifa Haftar, LNA, began meeting earlier this month in Geneva in an UN-sponsored joint military commission aimed at achieving a lasting ceasefire.
The LNA is backed by the United Arab Emirates, France, Russia and Egypt, while the GNA’s main supporter is Turkey. Many arms embargo breaches are occurring by air and by land through Egypt.
“It has been obvious in the last weeks there have been many not insignificant breaches of the weapons embargo,” German foreign minister Heiko Maas said, and added: “There have been decidedly differing explanations offered up from Libya as to what the reasons for this are, but everybody agrees that the path we have taken, which is to separate the conflicting parties from their supporters is still the only path to a possible successful outcome in ending the civil war in Libya.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres has also repeatedly warned that the conflict has to stop beeing fueled by foreign intervention.