The draft includes a number of ambitious measures to stifle the smuggling gangs, including a possible presence on the ground and targeting of vessels and assets on the Libyan shore.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the European Union is set to approve a military mission to take on criminal gangs smuggling people from the Libyan coast to Europe, with foreign and defense ministers expected to back the broad outline of the plan when they meet in Brussels next Monday.
We reported that some of the more ambitious options to tackle the gangs may need to be pared back in the face of international concerns, especially in Russia and China, about approving a binding United Nations Security Council resolution allowing use of force in and around Libya. Russia in particular wants to avoid any repeat of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led military action, underwritten by UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which ousted former Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gadhafi in 2011.
On Wednesday, as the EU laid out new plans to confront its migration crisis, we were one of a number of media outlets to obtain a draft of the mission plan. The draft includes a number of ambitious measures to stifle the smuggling gangs, including a possible presence on the ground and targeting of vessels and assets on the Libyan shore.
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