Libya's ambassador to the United Nations is largely rejecting a European Union plan to fight the growing migrant crisis, saying his Western-backed government hasn't even been consulted and ruling out EU forces on Libyan soil "at this stage."
In an interview yesterday with The Associated Press, Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi said the best way to resolve the migrant crisis is to arm the "legitimate" government in a country that has fractured. A rival regime is backed by Islamist-allied militias who have taken the capital, Tripoli.
And the ambassador warned that if there is no progress in UN-led peace talks in the coming weeks, his government, which is under a UN arms embargo, "has to take necessary steps even to take the capital by force."
Dabbashi said his government has been left out of the urgent international discussion of the migrant crisis, with thousands of people from the Middle East and Africa departing from Libya's shore for Europe and many dying at sea.
The crisis has grown amid the chaos that has consumed Libya since the overthrow of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, after a Security Council-authorized military intervention.
Diplomats have been working quickly on a draft Security Council resolution, which would be militarily enforceable, to authorize an European Union operation that would seize suspected migrant smuggling ships on the high seas, in Libya's territorial waters and even on the country's coast. The EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, is due to brief the council Monday.
Council diplomats say Libya's blessing is needed, especially for any EU ground forces in Libya. The council expects a request from Libyan authorities to allow that to happen, Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite, the current council president, said Thursday.
Yesterday, Dabbashi gave a different impression. "They never asked anything of us. Why should we send them this letter?" he asked. He added, "We will not accept any boots on the ground."
He called the idea of deploying more boats to the waters off Libya to save migrants a "completely stupid decision" because it would encourage even more migrants to come to his country, further burdening local authorities.
And he rejected the idea of destroying the migrant smuggling boats, saying it would be difficult to distinguish between those and other boats.
The "only way out" of the migrant crisis, he said, is to help his government, based in the east, to extend its control throughout the country, which also is now facing the rise of groups aligned with the Islamic State organization.
