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Sweden expects Tuesday Libya mission call: Bildt

Foreign minister Carl Bildt believes Sweden may receive a formal request for assistance in the ongoing Libya conflict at an international summit due to be held in London next Tuesday, news agency TT reports.

Sweden expects Tuesday Libya mission call: Bildt

Speaking after a meeting in Brussels with NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Bildt said NATO appeared increasingly likely to assume command over the UN-mandated enforcement of a no-fly zone in the North African country.

“That’s the way things are moving,” he said.

Bildt said he had not proposed sending JAS Gripen fighter planes from Sweden to Libya. Instead, he would await a concrete request from the military alliance.

“There’s no lack of airplanes [in Libya] at the moment,” Bildt told reporters. “But we’re not ruling anything out.”

Bildt said it was no catastrophe that the coalition had not yet fully defined the desired outcome of the operation, the direction it should take, or who should lead it.

“The coalition has all the resources it needs so there’s no immediate danger,” said Bildt. “It’s important to get this right from the start; otherwise there is a risk it will go wrong later.”

Bildt said it was also essential to clearly identify the situations in which it was permissible to use military force.

“These are important decisions; otherwise it could go very wrong.”

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IMMIGRATION

Libya conference to be held in Sicily in November: Italy

A Libya conference will be held in Sicily in November, Italy's foreign minister said Tuesday, with talks focusing on an "inclusive approach" to stabilising the war-torn north African country while not fixating on a date for elections.

Libya conference to be held in Sicily in November: Italy
The coastline of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

The peace conference in Palermo on November 12 and 13 will aim to “identify the stages of a stabilisation process”, Italian Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi told the Senate.

The meeting would drive towards “a common solution, even if there are differences of opinion between the parties involved”, he said.

Four key leaders from Libya agreed at a conference in Paris in May to hold landmark polls on December 10 as part of a French-led plan to stabilise the crisis-hit country despite ongoing violence and deep divisions.

France, however, has faced opposition to the election timetable from the United States along with other European Union countries, notably Italy.

Milanesi said he had received “confirmation of interest” in the conference from Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar as well as support from the US, and was planning on discussing the dossier with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Monday.

“No deadlines will be imposed on the Libyans, nor tasks dictated,” Milanesi said.

Italy, a key supporter of the UN-backed government of Fayez al-Sarraj in Tripoli, said in September it wants to “maintain an active dialogue” with all well-intentioned actors in Libya.

The Libyan capital has been at the centre of a battle for influence between armed groups since dictator Moamer Kadhafi was driven from power and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed uprising.

Sarraj's Government of National Accord has been unable to form a functioning army or regular security forces and has been forced to rely on militias to keep Tripoli safe.

Militias formed the backbone of the uprising that toppled Kadhafi.

Since then rival administrations, including one allied with Haftar and based in the remote east, and the militias have competed for authority and oil wealth in the North African country.

Accused by his opponents of wanting to establish a new military dictatorship, Haftar refuses to recognise the authority of Sarraj's Tripoli-based GNA.

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