No secret Italy deal with Libya traffickers - Sarraj

(ANSAmed) - PARIS, OCTOBER 6 - Libyan Premier Fayez al-Sarraj, on Friday told Le Monde there was no ''secret deal'' between Italy and human traffickers to stop migrants leaving Libya. Answering a question on a purported pact with a trafficking militia group in Sabratha, Sarraj said: ''There is an accord with Italy to help Libyan municipalities in the north and south develop the economy and create jobs. But there is no accord of the type you are talking about, that is to say supporting an armed group''.
    Le Monde on September 14 published a front-page article claiming that Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti negotiated with Libyan human traffickers to halt migrant flows.
    In the interview published on Friday, Sarraj also expressed the hope that an embargo on weapons in Libya issued by the UN Security Council in 2011 will be lifted. ''We have already started at the UN a process to request a partial lifting of the embargo'', he said, stressing that, among other things, ''we cannot fight such a phenomenon without equipment and weapons for our coast guard and control our southern borders. We have therefore asked Europeans for surveillance material, in particular in the south''.
    Sarraj also said: ''Our coast guard cannot fight with Zodiacs, highly armed and equipped smugglers' vessels. At the same time, we cannot protect our borders in the south only with unequipped off-road vehicles''.
    In the interview, he stressed that ''ISIS continues to pose a threat in Libya, as in other countries'' and noted that ''our objective is to guarantee that the army responds to the executive power, or civil authority''.
    The stabilization in Libya, he concluded, is ''key to fight illegal emigration. If we will not succeed, then this flow of migrants will affect Libya and Europe together with terror organizations trying to infiltrate it''. (ANSAmed).