Italian FM visits Libya

Italy’s foreign minister arrived in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, on Tuesday in a show of support for a UN-backed unity government that Western nations hope can unite the oil-rich country and lead the fight against a powerful Islamic State affiliate.
Paolo Gentiloni is the first European official to visit Libya since the head of the unity government arrived in Tripoli by sea late last month after a rival government backed by Islamists prevented him from landing at the airport. That government resigned a week later, but a third rival government is still based in Libya’s far east.
Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with an array of militias, including extremist groups, carving out fiefdoms across the country and backing rival authorities. The chaos allowed ISIS and other extremist groups to take root, and transformed Libya into a major conduit for illegal migration to Europe.
Western nations now hope that a unity government led by Fayez Serraj, a little-known technocrat, can bring Libya together and combat a local ISIS branch that has seized the central city of Sirte.
“We are strongly committed to support the new government and the presidency council,” Gentiloni said after meeting with Serraj, adding that “many of my colleagues” will visit Libya “in the near future.”
“The first message should be that the Libyan people and the Libyan government should be the one leading the activity against Daesh,” Gentiloni said, using an Arabic language acronym for the militant group. “We are ready to co-operate,” he added.
He said diplomats are discussing the reopening of missions in the capital, which were shuttered in 2014 amid heavy fighting between rival militias. Those battles left Tripoli in the hands of the Islamist-backed authorities and forced the internationally recognized government to relocate to the east.