A report prepared by UN experts affirmed that the arms embargo imposed on Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011 is “totally useless,” and the report documented several violations and irregularities, in return for a complete inability to deter or punish those involved.

The 550-page UN report stated that countries in the United Nations violating the arms embargo resolution in Libya "directly support the parties to the conflict," indicating "complete disdain for the sanctions measures."

The report concluded that the control of countries violating the arms embargo over "the entire supply network complicates monitoring, cutting and prohibiting these activities," after the experts made use of pictures, graphs and maps for the period from October 2019 to January 2021.

The UN report stated that "nothing indicates the withdrawal of the mercenaries of the Russian Wagner Company from Libya, despite the ceasefire agreement signed on October 25, 2020," stressing that the number of these mercenaries may reach about two thousand people.

Pictures of African mercenaries on the road between Sirte and Jufrah (Al-Jazeera - Archive)

Data and evidence

The six experts stated that other Russian companies contributed to the renewal of fighter jets supporting the retired Major General Khalifa Haftar.

The report revealed that American Eric Prince, founder of the American security company Blackwater, is accused of "sending or seeking to send foreign mercenaries, weapons and armed attack helicopters to Khalifa Haftar, when he was trying in 2019 to topple the internationally recognized Libyan government by the United Nations."

In the report, the UN experts recommended that the UN Security Council impose on the aircraft that violated the arms embargo to Libya, "measures to revoke their license and prevent them from flying and landing."

The UAE, Jordan, Russia, Syria and Egypt faced criticism for supporting the retired Major General Khalifa Haftar, accused of committing war crimes when trying to overthrow the internationally recognized Government of National Accord, after his attack on the capital, Tripoli, while international parties criticized Turkey for its support for the legitimate authorities in Tripoli.

Failure to deter

A member of the Supreme Council of State in Al-Qasim Dabras confirmed that the experts' report issued periodically regarding Libya usually refers to transgressions and violations, and is offset by a complete inability to deter and punish those involved.

The head of the Security Committee of the Supreme Council of State - to Al Jazeera Net - added that "the main reason is that some of the perpetrators of these abuses are permanent members of the UN Security Council, such as Russia and France. Therefore, the decision to ban arms on Libya is useless, because some parties have secured the punishment for not The presence of those who punish her or her agents in the region, such as the UAE and Egypt. "

Debars believes that the arms embargo decision, if it does not enjoy careful monitoring of the borders and ports in a sovereign way, is useless, especially when there is a neighboring country like Egypt that has a common land border with Libya of more than 700 km.

Dabers stated that conditions are ripe for this period in Libya to do a lot, in light of the trend towards peace and the unification of institutions and the assumption of the national unity government of its tasks throughout the Libyan soil.

Stolen will

For his part, a member of the Supreme Council of State, Ahmed Naqi, believes that the report of the United Nations experts indicates the fact that the Libyans are deprived of the national and political will.

"The real conflict in Libya is between regional and international poles, each of which seeks its own benefit, as if Libya is without a sponsor and must impose international tutelage on it, within the framework of the UN Security Council members' conquest of Libyan lands," Liqi said.

"Some members of the UN Security Council, who have the right to veto, will not comply with any international resolution on the arms embargo on Libya," he told Al-Jazeera Net.

He explained that the Libyans must work to restore the political will and the sovereign decision to unify efforts towards unification and unification of state institutions, especially the military, in addition to the national unity government having a major role to neutralize the interfering states in the Libyan affairs while ensuring common security and economic interests.

Important reports for documentation

For his part, Hafez al-Ghwail, a member of the Institute of International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, considered the UN reports important to document what is happening in Libya in the file of the arms embargo.

Al-Ghwail stated that the benefit of international reports is the existence of independent organizations and political forces within the permanent members of the Security Council, most of which are democratic countries, that can press for these countries to take correct positions on crisis countries.

Al-Ghwell added to Al-Jazeera Net, "It is not surprising that the embargo has no real value today, because the United Nations and the Security Council have not imposed strict sanctions on those who do not accept or violate the arms embargo, and when there is no punishment and a unified political position from the international community, these countries will not." Stop violating the ban. "

Al-Ghwail believes that if the United Nations fails to apply sanctions against countries violating the arms embargo in Libya, this means that there are other countries in the future that will follow the same path in violating any UN embargo in other regions of the world.

The Russian presence in eastern Libya through Wagner mercenaries in the Al-Jafra region in central Libya (Al-Jazeera - Archive)

Duplicate reports

On the other hand, the director of the Astrolabe Center for Studies, Abdul Salam Al-Rajhi, believes that the tenth report issued by the Committee of Experts in the Security Council does not differ from previous reports about the violation of the arms embargo to Libya, except for the increase in the number of intervening countries.

Al-Rajhi told Al-Jazeera Net that the UN team is talking about the Egyptian-Emirati role in supplying the rebel party in eastern Libya, and today it is talking about a Jordanian and Russian role in supporting Haftar.

Al-Rajhi pointed out that the UN team is only tasked with providing the UN Security Council with accurate information, but the Security Council did not take any real action against these violating countries, and even the companies involved were previously punished timidly.