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TRIPOLI, February 27, 2013 (AFP)
Libya said on Wednesday it will ask the UN Security Council to lift an embargo on arms imports to the instability-wracked North African country.
“At my meeting next week with the UN Security Council president, I will discuss the question of lifting the embargo,” said Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, quoted by the official news agency LANA.
“The issue will be discussed in all its aspects,” he said after a meeting on efforts to rebuild the Libyan armed forces attended by Defence Minister Mohammed al-Barghati, chief of staff Yussef al-Manghush and several officers. The Security Council imposed the embargo at the start of the 2011 uprising which led to the downfall of Moamer Kadhafi’s regime to protect the civilian population from his forces.
But Libya has since been increasingly insecure and the authorities are struggling to form a new army as militias control large swathes of territory. In mid-December, the authorities decided to seal off Libya’s long and porous borders with Algeria, Niger, Sudan and Chad, declaring the south of the country a closed military zone.
