UN Report: Libyan Arms Transfers to Terrorists in Syria

 UN,NEWYORK,(ST)_ In a new evidence  on the  involvement of Arab and foreign sides  in arming terrorist groups in Syria, a UN  report stressed  that Libya has become a major source of weapons in the region and transfers of arms to Syria had been organized from various locations in Libya, including Misrata and Benghazi, via Turkey or northern Lebanon.

Weapons are spreading from Libya at an “alarming rate,” fueling conflicts in Mali, Syria and elsewhere and boosting the arsenals of extremists and criminals in the region, Reuters quoted  a U.N. report published on Tuesday.

The report by the U.N. Security Council’s Group of Experts – who monitor an arms embargo imposed on Libya in 2011 said Libya  had become a key source of weapons in the region .

“Illicit flows from the country are fuelling existing conflicts in Africa and the Levant and enriching the arsenals of a range of non-State actors, including terrorist groups,” according to the 94-page report, which was dated February 15 but published on Tuesday.

“The proliferation of weapons from Libya continues at an alarming rate,” the report said.

“The significant size of some shipments and the logistics involved suggest that representatives of the Libyan local authorities might have at least been aware of the transfers, if not actually directly involved,” the experts said.

The experts said they had found that Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had breached the arms embargo on Libya by arming  the Libyan militias noting  that  “some 18 months after the end of the conflict, some of this materiel remains under the control of non-state actors within Libya and has been found in seizures of military materiel being trafficked out of Libya,” according to the report.

“Civilians and brigades remain in control of most of the weapons in the country, while the lack of an effective security system remains one of the primary obstacles to securing military materiel and controlling the borders,” it said.
The report also pointed to increased flows of weapons from Libya to Egypt dramatically over the past year.

“While trafficking from Libya to Egypt represents a challenge primarily for Egypt’s internal security, in particular in relation to armed groups in the Sinai, some of the materiel appears to have crossed Egypt to further destinations, including the Gaza Strip,” the experts wrote.

Weapons from Libya were also being transported through southern Tunisia, southern Algeria and northern Niger to destinations such as Mali, but some arms were remaining in those corridor countries for use by local groups, the report indicated.

Several  media reports disclosed operations of  providing  terrorist groups in Syria with weapons to prevent a political solution based on dialogue including US by the Republican senator Rand Paul who  earlier in  February admitted  dispatching  of weapons from Libya to Syria under US supervision of U.S. besides  reports indicated that  Croatian capital Zagreb became  to a transit point for weapons and ammunition to terrorist groups in Syria and the involvement of Washington and its  allies in training terrorists in camps in Jordan.

T. Fateh