...a Salafist militia which claims it is not part of al-Qaeda, even though it works about the same and for the same ends. There are groups of the same name in Libyaand Yemen, with the Libyan versions currently most active. Tunisia's Shabaab al-Tawhid started out an Ansar al-Sharia and changed its name in early 2014. It still uses the old name now and then, probably because the stationery's not all used up and the web site hasn't expired yet...
in Libya be designated a terrorist organization by the UN Security Council.
| Should the French, Spanish, Italians, Greeks and Turks want to organize an intervention and |
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting. Calling the country a "terrorist powder-keg", Fabius told others at the meeting that Gay Paree had formally requested "that Ansar al-Sharia be added to the Security Council terror list, the so-called Al-Qaeda list".
"With Libya, we are faced with two challenge: the first is to initiate national reconciliation between the different Libya groups. But the second, is that we must find ways and means to put an end to what is a terrorist powder-keg," he said.
So far, despite just five groups have been designated as terrorist organizations by the UN: Al-Qaeda, the Nusra Front in Syia, Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
in Nigeria, IS (Daesh), and Iraq's Kata'ib Hezbollah.
At present, other than the Libyan government, only the US has listed Ansar al-Sharia as a terrorist body.
Separately, the Security Council voted last month to impose sanctions on individuals and groups seen as responsible for the current crisis in Libya. A list is believed to have been drawn up but not made public while efforts continue to promote national dialogue.
La Belle France has taken a lead in recent weeks to mobilise international action on Libya. Last month French President François Hollande called for UN intervention in Libya. Without it, the president said, "terrorism will spread across the region".
Two weeks ago, La Belle France's Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Libya had become a "hub for terrorist groups" and that La Belle France had to act "mobilise the international community" to deal with the issue.