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Following a positive Libya peace summit in Berlin, the EU needs to back up commitments with actions, although the path ahead remains fraught with difficulty, writes Tom Garofalo.

Tom Garofalo is the International Rescue Committees Libya Director

Libya finds itself in a race against time. Following the dramatic escalation in conflict in April, the chaotic civil war is on the brink of metastasizing into a multinational conflict with dire humanitarian consequences.

The positive conclusion of the Berlin Summit this week was a sign of real international commitment to save lives and protect people caught in the crossfire. The momentum created by the conference is a powerful example of the role the EU can play on the global stage when its members pull as one.

While the path ahead remains fraught with difficulty, Europe now has a unique opportunity to turn the tide by translating Berlin commitments into action step in, kick-offstabilisationefforts, and prevent Libya from becoming the next deadly arena for the Age of Impunity.

Foreign actors have correctly identified Libya as a vulnerable host preyed on by weak rivals and a lack of international leadership. The conflict is now propelled by deepening external involvement, including ongoing violations of the 2011 arms embargo.

Even more worrying is the recent surge in manpower, weaponry and liquidity from both Russia and Turkey in support of opposing parties to the conflict: the Libyan National Army and the UN-supported Government of National Accord.

With these actors increasingly pulling the strings, and a void of global leadership,Europe has a vital role to play as a credible mediator in the midst of an emergency burgeoning in its own backyard.

This action is urgently needed to prevent an otherwise low-intensity, pocketed crisis from evolving into a regional tinderbox. We have seen the impunity playbookin action in Yemen and Syria: where local conflicts have been allowed to escalate intointernationalisedproxy wars, ushering in unprecedented humanitarian suffering. UN Special EnvoyGhassanSalamehas repeatedly lamented this absence of leadership, to little effect.

Last year alone, the number of civilians killed or injured by explosive weapons rose by 131%. Over 140,000 have been displaced in Tripoli alone since April. The UN has tracked over 1000 airstrikes indiscriminately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure including over 900 drone strikes emanating from foreign parties.

The International Rescue Committee can testify to the growing human cost of Libyas unravelling from the front lines. With over 100 staff in Tripoli and Misrata, the IRC continues to assist people caught up in crisis. However, in the past weeks, violence has forced us to suspend some of our life-saving health activities operations in health facilities.

Against this backdrop, approximately 1 million refugees, migrants and Libyans have been caught in the crosshairs since 2011. Only last year, almost 10,000 migrants and refugees seeking safety in Europe were intercepted at sea by the Libyan coastguard and returned to detention camps where humanitarian and human rights breaches happen daily.

This situation traps highly vulnerable people directly in harms way; Julys strike on Tajoura detention center, killing 53, is a case in point and a tragic reminder that the EU has a responsibility to those who have no safe and legal means to access protection.

Under the best of circumstances, Libyan authorities struggle to provide adequate services to citizens. With the intensification of conflict fueled by outsiders, the positive outcome of the Berlin Conference offers a rare window of opportunity for the EU to take back a leadership role inLibya. Here are three key elements Europe needs to push for to prevent a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe on its doorstep and shore up prospects for peace.

Firstly, any response to the Libyan crisis must put the lives of people who are bearing the cost of war at the centre. While the recent estimates say that 900,000 people are in need of assistance, the humanitarian appeal for Libya is currently less than halfway funded.

As the worlds largest humanitarian donor, the EU and its member states can help by stepping up funding efforts in the country and pouring all their efforts into ensuring national systems are strengthened.

While legal pathways to protection to Europe are still missing, it is also critical that more EU member states urgently join the resettlement scheme of the Emergency Transit Mechanism in Niger and Rwanda, ensuring that the evacuations from Libya are increased in response to the spiking needs.

These actions would truly reflect the pledge to respect International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law found in the conclusions of the Berlin Summit.

Foreign interference grows in the vacuum of diplomatic action and respect for international law. However challenging, the EU must make every effort to use its diplomatic leverage to place the ceasefire back into the UN framework and ensure the enforcement of the arms embargo, which otherwise pours fuel onto the conflict. Restoring the naval assets of Operation Sophia to monitor the embargos implementation is also indispensable.

Thirdly, the UN-led process isLibyas best near-term chance of laying a foundation for political stability and peace. Germanys efforts to bring parties to the table in Berlin and breathe new life into the UN process- is a positive and crucial first step in this regard.

Acoordinated strategy that bolsters the UNs diplomatic efforts will give the EU the best chance to promote civilian protection and prevent a void that can exploited by foreign interference.

As the worlds leading humanitarian actor and respected diplomatic power, the EU must do all it can to help pull the country back from the brink or watch as yet another protracted catastrophe unfolds at its borders.

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After Berlin, the EU needs to translate commitments on Libya into actions - EURACTIV

With abuse of the Internet and social media channels by terrorist organizations a growing concern for police, INTERPOL said it has conducted a training course for Libyan law enforcement officers on how best to exploit the Internet and specific social media sites in counter-terrorism investigations.

Held in Tunisia from January 20 to 24, the course was attended by 20 law enforcement professionals from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and General Investigation Department (GID) in Tripoli, Libya.

Terrorists use the Internet and social media channels for radicalization, recruitment, funding, planning and execution of terror activities, making it vital for law enforcement to collect, analyse and share data gathered from online sources, INTERPOL noted.

The course provided participants with recommendations on how to employ intelligence techniques to leverage online resources in compliance with human rights, the Libyan data protection mechanism, and international privacy and data protection standards.

Focused on boosting the operational and analytical skills of Libyan law enforcement officers, the course is part of ongoing cooperation between INTERPOL and Libya in this domain, which includes the provision of technical equipment.

At least three of the best-performing participants will be selected for further training and to take on additional responsibilities, in order to fully embed these investigation techniques into Libyas counter-terrorism activities.

Supporting the implementation of INTERPOLs Global Counter-terrorism Strategy, this initiative was funded by the Canadian Government (Global Affairs Canada) and attended by a representative from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

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Libyan Officers Trained On Tackling Online Activities Of Terrorist Targets - Eurasia Review

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Several countries backing rival factions in Libya have violated an arms embargo which they had agreed to uphold a week ago at a summit in Berlin, the United Nations said on Saturday.

FILE PHOTO: General view of the Libya summit in Berlin, Germany, January 19, 2020. Kay Nietfeld/Pool via Reuters/File Photo

Last Sunday, foreign powers backing opposing camps fighting over Libyas capital Tripoli agreed at a summit hosted by Germany and the United Nations to push the parties to a lasting ceasefire and respect an existing U.N. arm embargo.

Over the last ten days, 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 countries which were present at the Berlin conference, without naming them.

The United Arab Emirates and Egypt support eastern forces of Khalifa Haftar which have been trying to take Tripoli in a near-ten month campaign. The internationally recognized administration based in Tripoli trying to fend off Haftars forces is backed by Turkey.

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, Egypt, Turkey as well as western 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 Muammar Gaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011. Haftar is backing a rival administration based in the east.

Reporting by Ulf Laessing and Ahmed Elumami; Editing by Daniel Wallis

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Several countries have breached arms embargo agreed at Libya summit: U.N. - Reuters

A Libyan militant was sentenced on Thursday to more than 19 years in prison by a federal judge for his role in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans, including the United States ambassador.

The militant, Mustafa al-Imam, was convicted by a jury last year of conspiring to provide material support to the terrorists who were responsible for the siege on the main diplomatic mission and a nearby C.I.A. annex.

During the trial in United States District Court in Washington last spring, the jurors also convicted Mr. al-Imam of destroying the complex and endangering lives, but deadlocked on murder charges.

Mr. al-Imam, 47, was the second person sentenced in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, which became the subject of a contentious congressional inquiry sought by Republican critics of the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state at the time of the siege.

We have not rested in our efforts to bring to justice those involved in the terrorist attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, which led to the death of four courageous Americans Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Ambassador Christopher Stevens and we never will, John C. Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement on Thursday. Those responsible for these crimes must be held accountable.

Judge Christopher R. Cooper, who presided over the case, sentenced Mr. al-Imam to 19 years and six months in prison.

Matthew J. Peed, a lawyer for Mr. al-Iman, said in an email on Thursday night that an appeal was in the works.

We are disappointed by the sentence, which was based on allegations the jury did not believe, Mr. Peed wrote. The judge did find that Mr. al-Imam played a minor role in these events and harbored no animus towards America, which was encouraging. We look forward to an appeal, and hope those truly responsible for this attack are brought to justice.

Federal prosecutors had argued that Mr. al-Imam, who was captured in 2017 in Libya, should have received the maximum sentence of 35 years.

They said that cellphone records placed him at the complex during the attack and that he spent 18 minutes on the phone talking to the militia leader who orchestrated the siege, Ahmed Abu Khattala, while it transpired. The prosecutors said that Mr. al-Iman acted as the eyes and ears of Mr. Khattala, whom Judge Cooper sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2018, well short of the life sentence sought by the Justice Department.

In a sentencing motion for Mr. al-Imam, Mr. Peed wrote that his client was a frail, uneducated and simple man, not a fighter, an ideologue or a terrorist. The lawyer for Mr. al-Imam wrote that his client made a tremendous mistake when he agreed to help his friend, Mr. Khattala, damage and loot the complex.

In contrast to the five men awaiting military tribunals at Guantnamo Bay on charges that they plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Mr. al-Imam was tried in federal court, a venue opposed by the Trump administration.

Mr. Stevens, the ambassador, and Mr. Smith, another State Department employee, were killed when a mob of militants tried to storm the main United States diplomatic mission, which was set on fire. Mr. Woods and Mr. Doherty, who were contractors for the C.I.A., died later when a separate annex run by the agency was hit by mortars.

In 2016, an 800-page report by the House Select Committee on Benghazi delivered a broad rebuke of the State Department, Defense Department and C.I.A. for their failure to grasp the acute security risks in Benghazi and for maintaining diplomatic outposts that they could not protect. The report found no new evidence of culpability or wrongdoing by Mrs. Clinton.

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Libyan Militant Is Sentenced to 19 Years in Deadly Benghazi Attacks - The New York Times

(Want to get this briefing by email? Heres the sign-up.)

Good morning.

Were covering halting steps toward peace in Libya, Harry and Meghans hard break from the British royal family and a facial recognition app thats scraping photos from Facebook.

Gen. Khalifa Hifter, a rebel commander in Libya whose forces are laying siege to Tripoli, is due to meet in Moscow today with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, amid hopes that the general might embrace a permanent cease-fire agreement that he refused to sign last week.

The meeting comes a day after more than a dozen international powers with competing interests in Libya met in Berlin and called for a cease-fire, an arms embargo and a Libyan-led and Libyan-owned political process for ending a conflict that has festered for nearly nine years.

But expectations remain low: On Sunday, as General Hifters forces launched fresh attacks on Tripoli, he and the Libyan prime minister refused to even spend time in the same room together.

Related: As Russia and Turkey play a bigger role in trying to end the conflict, Europe is belatedly sensing the implications of a new Great Game, this time in North Africa, that is rapidly destabilizing its backyard, our Brussels-based correspondents write.

Russia: Our reporter in Moscow explains why Mr. Putin announced last week a surprise reorganization of the government four years before he is scheduled to step down. (Hint: An autocrats usual retirement package death, jail or exile is unappealing.)

When Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, made the bombshell announcement that they planned to step back from their royal duties, they said they hoped to carve out a progressive new role within the monarchy.

But under a severance deal announced over the weekend, the couple will lose most of the privileges and perks of royalty once they give up their full-time status and forsake Britain for an uncertain future in Canada and the United States. Its a harsher deal than the soft exit theyd imagined.

It brings me great sadness that it has come to this, Harry said of the agreement, which codifies one of the most dramatic ruptures within the British royal family since King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry an American, Wallis Simpson.

Details: Harry and Meghan will forgo public funding of their activities, abandon their royal designations and repay the more than $3 million they spent refurbishing their residence on the grounds of Windsor Castle. But for now, their website has retained references to His Royal Highness and Her Royal Highness.

Quotable: Penny Junor, a royal biographer, said the British royal family was trying to prevent a half-in, half-out arrangement, which doesnt work.

President Trumps high-powered legal team is expected to expand today on its earlier arguments that the case against the president is legally and constitutionally invalid, and driven by a desire to hurt him in the 2020 election.

Democrats argued in a competing legal brief on Saturday that Mr. Trump, through his pressure on Ukraine, had enlisted a foreign government to help him win re-election, then sought to conceal his actions from Congress. And with the presidents Senate impeachment trial set to open on Tuesday, Democrats are intensifying their demands for testimony and documents.

Another angle: Mr. Trumps personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, and his Ukrainian allies see people who are fighting corruption in the country as enemies. That could complicate President Volodymyr Zelenskys battles with oligarchs and organized crime.

Related: The Times Magazine profiled Mr. Giuliani, a central player in Mr. Trumps Ukraine pressure campaign.

From opinion: The Timess editorial board endorsed both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Italys anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which won the largest vote in national elections two years ago, was supposed to revolutionize the countrys politics. Now it looks to be on the verge of a slow-but-irreversible collapse.

Five Star had a messy breakup with Matteo Salvinis hard-right League party over the summer, and its governing coalition with the center-left Democratic Party hasnt worked out. The main problem, analysts say, is that Five Star has failed to transition from a vague protest movement into a governing party that is willing to take clear positions.

Whats next: At elections in the Emilia Romagna and Calabria regions later this month, the ascendant Mr. Salvini is hoping to put a stake in the governments heart, our Rome bureau chief, Jason Horowitz, writes.

Closer look: Last month Jason profiled Luigi Di Maio, Five Stars political leader and Italys foreign minister.

Isabel dos Santos, above center, Africas richest woman and the daughter of Angolas former president, often took cuts of her countrys wealth through decrees signed by her father. Global banks, bound by strict rules about politically connected clients, largely declined to work with her family.

But consulting companies readily embraced her business, and even agreed to take money from offshore shell companies tied to her and her associates. As a result, they both facilitated and helped legitimize her efforts to profit off diamonds, oil and banks in a country hobbled by corruption.

Virus in China: The authorities reported a third death and more than 130 new cases linked to a mysterious respiratory virus over the weekend, bringing the total number of reported cases to about 200. As millions in China prepare to travel home for Lunar New Year, some experts worry that the outbreak could be more severe than the government admits.

Rocket blast: SpaceX intentionally blew up a spacecraft, with NASAs blessing, after launching it from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as a way to test an escape feature for astronauts. The test may set the stage for SpaceX and Boeing to launch their first crewed flights.

Controversial app: Hundreds of American law enforcement agencies are using Clearview, a facial recognition app that identifies people based on photos scraped from Facebook and other websites. Clearview has shrouded itself in secrecy.

Klimt, revealed: A prosecutor said a painting by Gustav Klimt that was found last month inside the walls of the same Italian museum from which it was stolen almost 23 years ago is authentic.

Snapshot: Above, a small clothing factory that was flooded by calls from widows seeking work in Aleppo, Syria. As the countrys civil war grinds on, more women in socially and religiously conservative areas are leaving home and working for the first time.

What were reading: This look back at Prohibition, 100 years later, from NorthJersey.com. Its a perfectly mixed cocktail of history, politics and culture, writes Gina Lamb, a Special Sections editor. Dont miss the video.

Cook: Red curry lentils with sweet potato and spinach is an aromatic meal inspired by Indian dal.

Watch: With Star Trek: Picard, a spinoff following Patrick Stewarts Starfleet officer, the franchise is trying to rediscover its place in a universe that it effectively invented.

Smarter Living: If youre a night owl tired of not getting enough sleep, heres how to become a morning person.

Facing the likelihood of incoming clouds of smoke from the bushfires scorching the country, tournament officials say they may have to close the retractable roofs on three stadiums and restrict play to the eight indoor courts. Play began today.

The retractable roof on what is now Rod Laver Arena was a big attraction when it was new, in 1988. According to its designers, the point was to allow the stadium to host concerts and sports in all seasons.

It also helped the Australian Open make the transition into one of the grander of tenniss four Grand Slam events.

When the event began in the early 20th century, travel time for Americans and Europeans could be more than a month, so play was largely limited to Australians and New Zealanders.

Even after the advent of jet travel, low prize money and dates around the Christmas holidays kept many players away. Chris Evert played the Australian Open just six times; John McEnroe five; Bjorn Borg once.

Over time, prize money and ranking points increased. The tournament shifted to the third and fourth weeks of January and moved to Melbourne Park which has since added two more retractable roofs. Those additions now seem prescient.

Thats it for this briefing. See you next time.

Mike

Thank youTo Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Todays Back Story is drawn from reporting by Ben Rothenberg, who covers the Australian Open for The Times. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S. Were listening to The Daily. Our latest episode is about Bernie Sanderss campaign strategy. Heres todays Mini Crossword puzzle, and a clue: Point of a fable (five letters). You can find all our puzzles here. The New York Times reported from 159 countries in 2019.

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Libya, Harry and Meghan, SpaceX: Your Monday Briefing - The New York Times