No Sophia, EU arms embargo mission - FM

(ANSA) - Rome, February 17 - Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels Monday that the Sophia operation should not be revived and that an EU mission to enforce an arms embargo on Libya was needed instead.
    "The Sophia mission was not enough to block the entry of arms. And it cannot exist any more. And it does not exist any more," he said.
    "This new mission, with a new mandate, advanced here today, will give a major naval contribution that will be deployed on the eastern side of the Libyan coast, where the arms flow is arriving.
    "The proposal to halt the mission if it were to exercise a pull factor is also excellent, although that will not happen if we only have the ships in the east.
    "Obviously for this we need a new mandate for this mission".