Italy’s foreign minister says time is running out to stabilize war-torn Libya as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group is expanding its reach in the North African country, according to Al-Jazeera on Monday, Feb. 2nd.
The warning came as the European nation on Tuesday hosted in Rome representatives from 23 countries who are part of the US-led coalition against ISIL as it seeks to prevent the group from seizing Libya and launching attacks in the West from across the Mediterranean Sea.
Paolo Gentiloni, Italy’s foreign minister, said, in an interview to the Messagero newspaper, that there was no enthusiasm in Rome, or within the coalition, for “hasty military intervention”.
“If anything, we need to be ever more wary and more watchful because we know that the more Daesh [ISIL] is squeezed in its core territories, the more tempted it is to pursue its terrorist activities elsewhere,” Gentiloni said.
“We are witnessing renewed activity in Libya and in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Al Jazeera reporting from Rome, said the coalition was working on a plan for potential air strikes on ISIL positions in the coastal area that stretches from Bin Jawa to the west of Sirte, which lies about 370km east of the capital Tripoli.
“The biggest problem that the international coalition faces is that it doesn’t have reliable allies on the ground,” Al-Jazeera reported.
“The international coalition is hoping to have a strong government operating in Libya that can establish a national, well-trained army that can take on ISIL.”
Al-Jazeera said the coalition was likely to rely on gathering more intelligence about the presence of ISIL in Libya for the time being and then launching air strikes “as a first phase”.

“The second phase would be to encourage the warring factions in Libya to set their differences aside and form a national unity government,” he said, describing it “as the only efficient way to maintain stability and to continue to fight to prevent ISIL from establishing a platform in the coastal area where they can easily launch attacks against Europe”.
After the talks in Rome, Gentiloni said Italy was ready for requests from a new Libyan government “on several fields, including security”.
“But we have to have a political process going on and a government of national accord having the endorsement of a parliament in the next few weeks,” he said.