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Libya: Summary Executions Push UN to Renew Demands on Extraditing LNA Officer

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Libya: Summary Executions Push UN to Renew Demands on Extraditing LNA Officer

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The United Nations Support Mission in Libya UNSMIL filed on Thursday to the ICC demanding the "immediate" extradition of officer Mahmoud al-Werfalli loyal to Libyan National Army Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, after being charged with staging arbitrary executions without trial.

A video posted on social media showed the officer publicly executing on Thursday 10 potential terrorists in retaliation for a double attack which had killed 40 people in eastern Benghazi.

Werfalli is a special forces commander wanted by the ICC allegedly carrying out a number of similar killings.

In a tweet from its official account, the mission added that “it documented at least 5 similar cases, in 2017 alone, carried out or ordered by Werfalli.”

Footage gone viral showed Werfalli wearing a military uniform and executing about 10 blindfolded men in blue jumpsuits kneeling at the scene of the attack in Benghazi.

UNSIML expressed deep disapproval at reports of brutal executions in Benghazi.

More so, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has expressed his alarm over reports of revenge summary executions.

‘‘The Secretary-General condemns the double bombing in Al-Salmani district of the Libyan city of Benghazi on 24 January and deplores the loss of civilian life, including children. The Secretary-General expresses his deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wishes the injured swift recovery,’’ an official UN statement said.

The statement then added that ‘‘the Secretary-General is also alarmed by reports of summary executions being carried out in Benghazi in retaliation for the attack.

The Secretary-General reiterates that there can be no military solution to the Libyan crisis. The perpetrators of the attack in Al-Salmani, and of any criminal acts carried out in retaliation, must be brought to justice’’, the statement concluded.

The LNA announced last year that it was investigating Werfalli and has placed him in detention after the ICC said it was seeking his arrest him.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued a warrant for the arrest of Werfalli on 15 August 2017 to answer charges that he had been involved in seven incidents in which 33 bound prisoners were killed. In response, the LNA had responded by saying that the suspect had already been arrested.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.