Belgium: Luxembourg FM confirms end of Operation Sophia anti-smuggler mission

*NO CUTAWAYS AT SOURCE*
SOT, Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg Foreign Minister (French): "So this agreement has been distributed, a political agreement which has been distributed and it starts by saying that Operation Sophia is closed, it is finished. Why? Mainly because our Italian friends saw Operation Sophia not just or uniquely as an operation to control the embargo but for them it was an operation that was implicated in the rescuing of migrants, so this operation doesn't exist anymore."
SOT, Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg Foreign Minister (French): "This operation will be comprised of three levels, in the air, satellite and maritime. The operation, the area of the operation will be defined by those who will put it into motion."
SOT, Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg Foreign Minister (French): "The operation also includes organised crime, this means the human smugglers, but this is mainly an operation to monitor the (arms embargo). We discussed it at length and I can read you the sentence in English, on this basis in case of observation of pull factors on migration by the whole representative, maritime assets will be withdrawn from the relevant area."
SOT, Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg Foreign Minister (French): "Secondly, you must obviously know that this operation, the overriding objective, is an embargo, it is the arms embargo. So there was Berlin (conference) and that's very well, because we all commented on how great it was and we are now at the United Nations level and that can only go in the right direction. But you also know that this is reality and another real process is that thousands of militiamen, not sure what to call them, came after Berlin to Libya and with them they brought weapons. Now at the Security Council the P5 said yes, we agree on an arms embargo if there are no weapons there is no war, especially at this level. But you know that there are thousands and thousands of weapons in Libya, but still, we must not add to them. "
SCRIPT
European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to end Operation Sophia and commence a new aerial and maritime operation focused on reinforcing a UN arms embargo around Libya, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said in Brussels.
"Operation Sophia is closed, it is finished," Asselborn told the press in Brussels on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers. Asselborn said the operation was "mostly" finished because "our Italian friends saw Operation Sophia not just or uniquely as an operation to control the embargo but for them it was an operation that was implicated in the rescuing of migrants."
Referring to the still-unnamed new operation, Asselborn said the "overriding objective" was the arms embargo on Libya. "This operation will be comprised of three levels, in the air, satellite and maritime. The operation, the area of the operation will be defined by those who will put it into motion."
Operation Sophia, which aims to combat the people smuggling in the Mediterranean, currently has no ships of its own after a compromise struck under pressure from the Italian government in March 2019, by which the operation was limited to aircraft alone.