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U.N.: Several Countries Have Breached Arms Embargo Agreed to at Libya Summit

Reuters

   TRIPOLI - Several countries backing rival factions in Libya have
   violated an arms embargothatthey had agreed to uphold a week ago at a
   summit in Berlin, the United Nations saidSaturday.

   Last Sunday, foreign powers backing opposing camps fighting over
   Libya's capital,Tripoli,agreed at a summit hosted by Germany and the
   United Nations to push the parties to a lasting cease-fire and respect
   an existing U.N. armsembargo.

   "Over the last10days, numerous cargo and other flights have been
   observed landing at Libyan airports in the western and eastern parts of
   the country,providing the parties with advanced weapons, armored
   vehicles, advisers and fighters," the U.N mission to Libya (UNSMIL)
   said in a statement.

   "The mission condemns these ongoing violations, which risk plunging the
   country into a renewed and intensified round of fighting," UNSMIL said.

   It blamed several countrieswhoserepresentativeswere present at the
   Berlin conference, without naming them.

   The United Arab Emirates and Egypt supporttheeastern forces of Khalifa
   Haftar,which have been trying to take Tripoli in a nearly 10-month
   campaign. The internationally recognized administration based in
   Tripoli trying to fend off Haftar's forces is backed by Turkey.

   Artillery in Tripoli

   Fighting had abated in the past two weeks,but on Saturday heavy
   artillery could be heard in Tripoli, a Reuters reporter said.

   The Berlin summit had gathered top officials from the UAE,
   EgyptandTurkey,as well asWestern countries such as the United States,
   France, Britain and European Union.

   Germany also invited Haftar and Tripoli Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj,
   who both met separately with Chancellor Angela Merkel but refused to
   sit down together.

   Libya has been engulfed in chaos since the toppling of Moammar
   Gadhafiin a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. Haftar is backing a rival
   administration based in the east.

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