NATO has no plans to launch a military operation in Libya, the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.
“When it comes to Libya… There are no plans to launch a new military operation in Libya. We fully support efforts to try to find a political solution, a negotiated peaceful solution,” Stoltenberg told reporters at the opening of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
Islamic State (ISIL, or Daesh in the Arab world) has seized several towns in Libya since November 2014, when a number of Libyan militias pledged allegiance to the group. Libya remains fractured among rival militia lines, with the internationally recognized government in charge of the country’s eastern regions.
NATO supports UN efforts to find a political solution, Stoltenberg said, adding that the Alliance would engage in “defense capacity building” once such a solution was in place.
