The European Union Operations Command to monitor the arms embargo on Libya, "IRINI", said that today it prevented a ship coming from the port of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates from accessing Libyan territorial waters, on suspicion of violating the United Nations ban on supplying weapons to Libya.
The leadership of "Irini" explained that it searched the ship "Royal Diamond 7" this morning in international waters, 150 km north of the city of Derna, in eastern Libya, before turning it into a port belonging to the European Union for further investigation.
She explained that the ship departed from the port of Sharjah in the UAE and was heading to the city of Benghazi, in eastern Libya, with a shipment of aviation fuel that could be used for military purposes.
The leadership of "IRINI" confirmed that this fuel is considered, according to the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, a military material.
The source of the information
and the intervention of the European naval mission came by a German frigate supported by an Italian, after receiving information from the United Nations Committee of Experts on the arms embargo on Libya, which alerted the suspicious nature of the shipment of the Emirati merchant ship.
"Irene" prevents a ship carrying "jet fuel" from reaching Libyan territorial waters
Details: https://t.co/gVvv7rVE0h pic.twitter.com/NkTtUJcfUq
- Center Portal (@alwasatnewsly) September 10, 2020
The UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo in Libya after the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime at the end of 2011, in order to stop the fighting between the warring forces and facilitate the peace process in the country. However, many reports of Security Council experts monitored many countries' violations of the international embargo. To Libya, by sending sea and air flights carrying arms shipments to the warring parties in the country.
The leadership of "IRINI" says in a statement today that since the start of its operations in May 2020, it has carried out about 650 surveillance operations in the central Mediterranean, and 12 visits on board commercial ships, and has been able to monitor suspicious ships in more than 10 ports and anchorage points, as well as monitoring 80 flights. A suspected air force carrying military shipments to and from Libya.
Operation Irene has been criticized by the internationally recognized Libyan government and Turkey that its operations to ensure that the UN resolution to embargo the arms is not violated is limited to Turkish ships and does not include the land borders between Egypt and Libya, where Haftar's forces receive direct military support from Cairo and Abu Dhabi.