Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on the political situation in Libya on reports that the United Arab Emirates is arming Field Marshal Khalifa Hifter's Libyan Arab Armed Forces.

The UK is clear that external involvement in the Libya conflict is undermining UN efforts to end the fighting and bring the parties back to the negotiating table. We take very seriously all reports of violations of the UN arms embargo, including the findings of the UN Panel of Experts. The Government is in frequent contact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) about the situation in Libya. The Foreign Secretary discussed it with his Emirati counterpart, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed, on 21 January. The UK and UAE supported the conclusions of the Berlin conference on Libya on 19 January that called for an end to external military support to the parties in Libya.