During his visit in Puglia, Admiral Agostini, EUNAVFORMED Operation Commander, explored the possibility offered by the Italian Navy to train Libyan Coast Guard and Navy. This task of the Operation Irini is pending the political decision from the Libyan counterpart about a dedicated agreement.

As well as EUNAVFORMED Sophia did, the intent is not only to build the maritime capacity of Libyan Coast Guard and Navy in order to be able to grant security in the proper area of responsibility at sea but also to save human lives with particular attention to gender issues and human rights. Operation Sophia successfully trained about 500 Libyan officer, petty officers and sailors.

During these 4 months Operation, EUNAVFORMED Irini patrolled the central Mediterranean and performed more than 600 hailings and 9 friendly approaches (visits onboard of merchant vessels). It monitored not only suspect vessels at sea in more than 10 ports and landing points, but also noticed – monitoring 25 airports and landing strips – more than 80 military flights or possible military-related air cargos going back and forth to Libya. Operation Irini has been contributing to UN arms embargo with 14 special reports to the United Nations Panel of Experts concerning both sides of the conflict in Libya. In that way it proved its impartiality.

Operation Irini (named after the Greek goddess for “peace”) was planned in a very short timeframe and launched on 31 March 2020, following a decision by the Council of the European Union. The main task is the implementation of the arms embargo on Libya under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. The Operation also has secondary tasks including monitoring illegal oil trafficking from Libya, contributing to countering human trafficking and smuggling activities (through air monitoring) and contributing to the training of the Libyan Coast Guard and Navy.

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