Italy, France and the European Union should dialogue to set up a common strategy to be implemented in Libya, as there are vital interests at stake in the energy field thanks to an important ten-year presence of Eni and Total in the field of hydrocarbon research
By Massimiliano D'Elia
Tehran is trying to expand its trade networks in Africa. For this purpose it would be using an Iranian shipping company that has long used some Libyan ports under the control of Khalifa Haftar's Libyan National Army. An editorial in La Verità revealed the news. It's about the Rahbaran Ornid Darya Ship Management (ROD), a private company offering management services for industries offshore and large-scale shipping globally. ROD operates five shipping lines with over 7 large vessels including container ships, tankers and bulk carriers.
The ROD appears to have already been sanctioned by the Office for Control of asset foreign affairs of the United States Department of the Treasury because it is controlled by quds, an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards unit specializing in operations intelligence abroad. From this revelation emerges the suspicion regarding the trafficking of General Khalifa Haftar, as a well-known close ally of Vladimir Putin, who would use an Iranian company to trade with Tehran and other countries sanctioned by the international community. Some observers maintain that the ROD company can transport weapons and ammunition, via the Libyan route, to African terrorist groups, not disdaining supplies also to Houthis e Hezbollah. Not only weapons but also drugs and human trafficking could be part of a larger strategy by Russia and Iran aimed at promoting instability in the entire Middle East.
The presence of Iranian ships in Libyan ports was made official recently, during the visit of the Iranian president Ebrahim raisi in Africa in July 2023. Furthermore, theIslamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), already sanctioned by the United States in 2007, has resumed its services to the Libyan port of Misurata. According to La Verità, this reflects a significant increase in trade between Iran and African countries in 2023, with nearly 50 economic and trade cooperation agreements signed up to March 2023, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
The increasingly strong presence of Iranian and Russian companies in Libya worries the European Union and Italy, especially considering Libya's geographical proximity to the Italian coast and the continuous flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.
Russia, however, is even more pressing since it recently opened its embassy in Tripoli. Russia and Iran, however, could significantly interfere with Turkey's declared interests in Libya, forcing Erdogan to increase his presence on the territory by sending other military advisors, or additional ships to the area of interest.
Italy, France and the European Union they should, therefore, try to dialogue more to set up a common strategy to be implemented in Libya, as there are vital interests at stake in the energy field thanks to an important decades-long presence of Eni e Total in the field of hydrocarbon exploration.
A dialogue invoked by many which, in reality, is however difficult to implement because in the Old Continent every nation moves, in no particular order and still according to specific national interests which, however, are, in fact, no longer current where it is necessary to unite in order to compete with the increasingly aggressive Asian axis is seeking the stabilization of a new "multipolar" world order, in order to undermine the hegemonic dominance of America and the Western world more generally.
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