Italy Spurns UN Mission in Libya, Nepal Troops to Go Instead

PM: Italy Taking a 'Different Road' to Libya

With Italy being widely talked about as leading the planned invasion by Western European nations of Libya, it was widely assumed they’d be the ones contributing to the UN “support” operation in Libya. That will not be the case, it turns out, as Italy declined that.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says Italy is taking “a different road” into Libya, and will be attending a meeting of Western nations in Vienna tomorrow to discuss international intervention in Libya. It appears the Italians don’t want to lock themselves into anything before that meeting.

Instead of Italy, the UN mission will instead see a deployment of troops from Nepal, expected to be a deployment of several hundred of Nepalese troops. Nepal has committed to provide “up to 5,000” troops to UN operations, and already has 4,363 deployed in 15 other operations around the world.

Reports have suggested Italy would send some 5,000 troops to Libya in its own invasion, with Britain and France each expected to send about 1,000 troops each. Though Britain presented this as a “training operation,” they also conceded that only a tiny fraction would be trainers.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.