The beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians by the Islamic State’s (IS) affiliate in Libya is giving impetus to calls for broader military action against Muslim militants in the oil-rich country.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, whose air force bombed Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, said his country will ask the UN Security Council to authorize intervention in the North African nation.
Italy, Libya’s former colonial ruler, said it would consider sending a force under a UN mandate.
Tunisia said helicopters and fighter jets were conducting reconnaissance missions to monitor its border with Libya.
More than three years after NATO-led airstrikes helped Libyan rebels end then-Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s four decades of autocratic rule, the crisis in the holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves is posing a threat to its neighbors as well as European interests. Italian oil company Eni SpA is Libya’s biggest foreign oil producer.
“There’s no other choice, taking into account that the Libyan people and the Libyan government agree and call us to act to re-establish stability and security,” al-Sisi said in an interview with French radio channel Europe 1 yesterday, referring to his UN proposal.
A power struggle between militants and the elected Libyan government has divided the country, driving it further into chaos, and would complicate any foreign military intervention. Airstrikes alone will not be enough to restore stability, political analysts in Egypt and the region say, noting progress made by the US-led bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria in defeating the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is part of the US-Arab coalition bombing Islamic State in Syria, said it would support al-Sisi in his fight against terrorism.
UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba, in an piece in Politico magazine on Monday, said: “What happens on the ground will matter most” in the fight against Islamic State militants.
“While the US-led coalition has been decisive in helping to blunt ISIL advances from the air, what happens on the ground will matter most,” he wrote, using another acronym for the group. “Boots on the ground are critical and that we must move more urgently to train, equip and deploy local forces.”
Meanwhile, Italy, is ready to send more than 5,000 soldiers under a UN mandate to stop the Islamic State, “which is now 350 kilometers from our shores,” Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Roberta Pinotti said in an interview published on Sunday in the newspaper Il Messaggero.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
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