I would like to highlight an article in the UK’s The Daily Telegraph of February 18. It is very disconcerting to read that Islamic State militants are planning a takeover of Libya as a “gateway” to wage war across southern Europe.

According to militant sources they intend to flood Libya with Syrian militiamen and sail across the Mediterranean posing as migrants on people-trafficking boats, then run amok in southern European cities and towns and also try attacking maritime shipping.

This is a horrifying prospect for the people of the Maltese Islands, who stand slap bang in the way of these proposed attacks and which obviously is not in a strong enough position militarily to defend itself satisfactorily.

If I were a Maltese citizen, I would want to know whether the Maltese government has assessed this real potential threat and how it would intend dealing with it.

In this day and age, it is no longer enough to state that a country like Malta is neutral. That is a word that IS would not recognise, nor care about.