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WORLD NEWS 9
Wednesday 3 February
Libya’s political chaos slows
response to Islamic State
BRADLEY KLAPPER there, and stand ready to and Britain seem to have Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir attends a 23-nation
Associated Press support the Government similar reservations. conference, in Rome, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016.
ROME (AP) — The military of National Accord in its In Washington, a key law-
strategy for eliminating efforts to establish peace maker said Western coun- Associated Press.
the Islamic State in Libya and security for the Libyan tries shouldn’t wait.
appeared on hold Tues- people.” “I don’t think we can af- tion’s achievements over paign.
day as nations fighting the Kerry indicated political ford at this time to put off the last 16 months: 10,000
extremist group said they progress might be occur- actions that might inter- airstrikes, 90 leading mili- Neither outlined
could help the North Afri- ring behind the scenes, rupt IS’s operational capa- tants killed, oil sites tar-
can country re-establish se- describing Libya as “on the bilities” in Libya, said Rep. geted, finances disrupted, any new military steps from
curity once its long-await- brink of getting a new gov- Adam Schiff, the House most of the Turkish border
ed new government is es- ernment” after months of Intelligence Committee’s sealed off, and heavy any coalition member, and
tablished. waiting. But at a news con- top Democrat. weapons, training sites
But Libya is in political cri- ference later in the day, Tuesday’s conference in and infrastructure all ham- there was no indication
sis, more than four years Kerry sidestepped a ques- Rome ended with similarly mered by the U.S.-led cam-
after a U.S.-led military ef- tion that specifically con- vague pledges to acceler- when the fight would move
fort helped topple dictator cerned military strategy in ate the Islamic State’s de-
Moammar Gadhafi. Nei- Libya by focusing mainly feat in Syria and Iraq. to the key Iraqi city of Mo-
ther the U.S. nor anyone on Syria and on President Gentiloni said IS has lost 40
else at a 23-nation confer- Barack Obama’s determi- percent of the land it once sul or the Islamic State’s
ence in Rome spoke of a nation not to build a sig- held in Iraq, and 20 per-
second military interven- nificant U.S. military troop cent in Syria. self-proclaimed capital of
tion. presence anywhere. And Kerry cited the coali-
Although much of the con- The meeting in Rome Raqqa, Syria.q
ference focused on anti- comes days after Obama
Islamic State efforts in Syria convened a National Se-
and Iraq, the concluding curity Council meeting
statement of foreign min- dedicated to Libya. U.S.
isters also noted Islamic Defense Secretary Ash
State’s “growing influence” Carter also warned that IS
in Libya. And U.S. Secretary militants were consolidat-
of State John Kerry issued ing there by establishing
his own warning, saying training sites, attracting for-
“the last thing in the world eign recruits and raising tax
you want is a false caliph- money.
ate with access to billions European countries, too,
of dollars of oil revenue.” are weighing options, and
He called for more security Kerry won support from the
training and undefined mili- meeting’s host, Italian For-
tary support for Libya. eign Minister Paolo Gen-
Since 2014, Libya has been tiloni. Italy, whose south-
split between two rival au- ernmost point is less than
thorities. A new unity gov- 300 miles from Libya, is the
ernment still doesn’t have point of entry for hundreds
parliamentary approval. of thousands of migrants
And an Islamic State affili- using Libya-based smug-
ate is carving out territory in glers to reach Europe.
the center of Libya while Appearing alongside Kerry,
militants, wearied by coali- Gentiloni said Italy would
tion air strikes in Iraq and provide security assistance
Syria, flock to the new front. once Libya’s government
Despite increased alarm, is confirmed and makes
the U.S. and the European the appropriate request.
and Arab countries only re- He said “many countries”
solved at Tuesday’s meet- were working up such
ing to “continue to moni- plans, but “we need a po-
tor closely developments litical process” first. France
