Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio
said Wednesday that Italy would continue to work on making sure
the arms embargo on Libya is complied with and a permanent
cease-fire reached, slamming "unacceptable" foreign interference
in the north African country.
Di Maio wrote the statement on his Facebook account Wednesday
after meeting Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) Prime
Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Interior Minister Fathi Bashaga in
Tripoli.
"Italy will be decisive in every European choice. No one
knows Libya like we do, no one like Italy has it a few hundred
kilometres from its coasts," he wrote, during the unscheduled
visit to the country. "There is a risk of terrorism that we must
not underestimate, countries that do not know peace and that
continue to arm the parties on the ground. We cannot accept
this."
He went on to say that "today the international community is
facing a lot of doubts and one certainty: that the 2011 bombings
were an unforgivable error, and that we are paying for this
mistake now. But the time has come for a different signal."
Di Maio wrote that "we are employing an inclusive approach,
involving all Libyan municipalities and speaking to all those
active on the ground. The aim is to restore adequate security so
that our firms can begin investing again. This is not one path,
it is the path. That of good sense and those who actually have
the future of the Libyan people and the security of its citizens
at heart.".
The GNA's press office said Di Maio had reiterated his
support for "Sarraj, for the political process and the results
of the Berlin peace conference".
The most important of these results, it said, were "an end to
foreign interference, a ratification of the ceasefire and the
activation of mechanism to implement it."
It said Sarraj had again urged the international community to
"stand firm" to make sure the "aggressor", eastern Libyan
strongman General Khalifa Haftar, upholds the conference's
results.
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