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ITALY joined calls for UN action to deal with the chaos in Libya yesterday as US President Barack Obama began hosting a summit on “violent extremism.”
The UN security council was due to hold a special session on the crisis in the north African country last night, with Egypt’s foreign minister preparing to hold bilateral meetings with the five permanent members.
Since Nato bombers helped Islamist militias to oust the secular Muammar Gadaffi regime in 2011, Libya has been riven by sectarian warfare which has killed tens of thousands.
But the recent emergence of Isis in the country — and especially its grisly murder of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians at the weekend — has caused panic in Western capitals.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned the world to “quicken its pace before it is too late,” as documents emerged suggesting that Isis was planning to use Libya as a base to ferry fighters across the Mediterranean.
Such a strategy would pose a minimal military threat, but could spell disaster for refugees fleeing the country if Western navies believe migrant boats could contain terrorists.
Isis massacred more than 40 residents of the Iraqi town al-Baghdadi on Tuesday and appeared to be making gains against the Syrian government around Aleppo this week.
But the international response to the fanatical terror group has been hampered by the West’s refusal to co-operate with Syrian forces battling it on the ground — and its funnelling of money and equipment to “moderate rebels” in Syria who have passed it on to Isis.
Russia and China, which opposed the Nato assault on Libya in 2011 and predicted the collapse of the country that ensued, have expressed scepticism over the motives of any new Western-backed intervention.
An official commentary on China’s Xinhua state news agency noted yesterday that “in the name of counter-terrorism the George W Bush administration launched two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which instead of stemming terrorism have bred waves of terrorist activities that have claimed tens of thousands of innocent lives.”
But Mr Obama echoed British Prime Minister David Cameron’s denial of responsibility for the turmoil in Libya, blaming terrorism on “underlying ideologies” rather than Western wars.
