Prodi nixes Libya intervention

(see related)(ANSA) - Rome, March 3 - Former center-left premier Romano Prodi told RAI public broadcaster Thursday the conditions are not there for an intervention in Libya. "Our prime minister and the United Nations said a military intervention in Libya could only take place upon request by a (Libyan) government of national unity," Prodi told TG3 evening news. "Currently we are very far from (such a scenario)... war is the last resort". Prodi added that Italy "could only intervene under the aegis of the UN ".
    The former premier said the killings of two Italian hostages in Libya were "deliberate rather than an accident".
    "Holding four Italian hostages is a formidable tool for (so-called Islamic State terror group) ISIS to exert pressure," Prodi said. "This is why I am inclined to believe it was something deliberate rather than an accident".