JERUSALEM - Major world powers announced on Monday that they are ready to arm and train fighters of the Libyan government in an effort to root out the Islamic State from the fractured North African nation.

The announcement, the result of a 21-nation gathering in Geneva, Switzerland, essentially means lifting the five-year Libyan arms embargo for Libya’s United Nations-backed government. According to the text of the joint statement, “the Government of National Accord (gna) has voiced its intention to submit appropriate arms embargo exemption requests to the UN Libya Sanctions Committee to procure necessary lethal arms and materiel to counter UN-designated terrorist groups and to combat [the Islamic State] throughout the country. We will fully support these efforts while continuing to reinforce the UN arms embargo.”

While many consider providing arms to Tripoli a necessary first step in giving the government the ability to counter the Islamic State’s rise in Libya, many commentators view the international community’s actions as premature and likely damaging to the long-term future of Libya.

Here’s why:

The Libyan arms embargo was originally set up by the United Nations Security Council in 2011 to prevent Muammar Qadhafi from acquiring weapons to use against his own people.

But as is often the case when foreign intervention removes a strongman without an effective follow up in place, once Qadhafi was removed from power, the various militias that make up the revolutionary forces began fighting among themselves, ensuring that no viable national government was set up in Libya. The arms embargo has remained in place ever since because the international community doesn’t want to add more weapons to the dangerous mix.

Things started to change for the international community when the Islamic State made headway into Libya, taking over the northern city of Sirte. At the same time, migrants by the hundreds of thousands began using Libya’s lawless coastline to set sail to Europe.

Europe could no longer ignore Libya; it needed a partner to work with.

Following what could be described as intrusive midwifery by the UN and especially the European Union, the gna was set up by fiat in late 2015 to be that partner. gna Prime Minister Faiez Serraj’s government arrived in Tripoli earlier this year and currently controls the western portions of Libya. A powerful government still operates out of the eastern city of Tobruk, now officially unrecognized by the UN.

According to Monday’s statement, only the gna will be the “sole legitimate recipient of international security assistance.” All other groups, including the Libyan National Army (lna), which serves the Tobruk-based government, are deemed illegitimate and will not be getting help in the fight against the Islamic State.

This presents many challenges for Libya going forward because it is the lna, led by Gen. Khalifa Haftar, which has been the lone successful fighting force against the Islamic State so far.

According to astute Libyan observer Jason Pack:

The international community’s undeterred championing of the gna seems increasingly out of step with Libyans’ sentiments. The lna’s popularity has grown considerably since the beginning of 2016 with major gains achieved against [the Islamic State] and other extremist militants in Benghazi, Derna and Ajdabiya. These advances have played a decisive role in shifting a large segment of public opinion in favor of Haftar and the lna—not only in eastern Libya but in the western region as well. With both the gna and the lna racing to liberate Sirte, Libyans could interpret a lifting of the arms embargo as a gna ploy to achieve an advantage over Haftar.

Essentially, by backing the gna with arms, the international community is sidelining and perhaps even provoking one of the more popular and effective fighting forces against the Islamic State. A more helpful scenario would be one where the international community brought together the two main rival militias and presented a unified front against the Islamic State.

Given the growth of the Islamic State and the return of the migrants to Libya, however, Europe cannot afford to wait for a Libyan national consensus. It is thus forced to take a gamble that the gna will be able to not only rout the Islamic State but also prevent the weaponry from falling into the wrong hands. Remember, it was the capture of United States weaponry originally supplied to the Iraqi Army that bolstered the Islamic State when the Iraqis cut and run.

To read more about why the international community, and especially Europe, is pushing hard to influence events in Libya, as well as where it will lead, read “The Next War in Libya.” Also, be sure to read Trumpet Editor Gerald Flurry’s article on the Battle of the Mediterranean in the print edition of the Trumpet next week.