Operation Sophia

The European Union will launch a new Mediterranean naval and air mission in April to stop more arms reach warring factions in Libya, EU diplomats said on Thursday, with Greece agreeing to take in any migrants rescued at sea.

European Union foreign ministers agreed Monday to end Operation Sophia, the bloc's naval mission in the Mediterranean Sea, and launch a new maritime effort focused more on enforcing the UN arms embargo around Libya.

A number of European Union countries are still blocking any move to resume a naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea over concerns that it might encourage migrants to set out from Libya in search of better lives in Europe, the EU's top diplomat said Monday.

Italy is prepared to consider a resumption of maritime patrols in the Mediterranean, a senior official said, but diplomats said Austria is sticking to its objections, in a blow to European efforts to uphold a UN arms embargo on Libya.

By George Gilson

If the geopolitical volatility in the Balkans before WWI led to its description as the powder keg or tinder box of Europe, today the same many be said of the Southeastern Mediterranean but on a more expansive geographic scale, drawing in the US.

The European Union's mission "Sophia" to curtail migrant smugglers in the Mediterranean will no longer deploy naval ships, in a decision aimed at resolving a dispute with Italy over where rescued asylum-seekers disembark.