Libya’s foreign minister has fled the country after news of a secret meeting in Rome between her and her Israeli counterpart last week was released by the Israeli foreign ministry, causing a political outcry in Tripoli and two nights of street protests across the country.
Najla al-Mangoush had already been suspended by her Tripoli-based prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, on Sunday evening when news of the meeting broke. Officials initially claimed the meeting had been a chance affair, and not planned.
Dbeibah had put her under investigation, but she later claimed she would have not gone ahead with the meeting last week without the knowledge and consent of her prime minister.
She is reported to have flown to Turkey.
It is not clear why the Israeli foreign ministry thought it sensible to brief unilaterally that the meeting between the two sides had occurred since the reaction in the north African state shows how carefully the issue of normalisation between Israel and Arab states has to be handled.
Pro-Palestinian protests are relatively rare in Libya, and the outcry is likely to discourage other Arab leaders from seeking closer ties with Israel, especially if the Israeli diplomatic service cannot be trusted to keep confidences.
In a bid to distance himself from the diplomatic fiasco Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday morning ordered all members of his government to inform him in advance of secret diplomatic exchanges. His office has not been clear if he knew of the meeting in advance.
The original Israeli statement said the country’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, and Mangoush, his Libyan counterpart, spoke last week at a meeting in Rome hosted by the Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani.
The Israeli statement described it as the first such diplomatic initiative between the two countries.
“I spoke with the foreign minister about the great potential for the two countries from their relations,” Cohen said in a statement issued on Sunday from Israel’s foreign ministry. Cohen said that the two discussed “the importance of preserving the heritage of Libyan Jews, which includes renovating synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in the country”.
”Libya’s size and strategic location offer a huge opportunity for the State of Israel,” he added.
The foreign ministry claimed it had only been confirming a pre-existing leak to a news outlet.
In what looked like an unconvincing cover-up, the Libyan foreign ministry said: “What happened in Rome was a chance and unofficial encounter, during a meeting with his Italian counterpart, which did not involve any discussion, agreement or consultation.”
In a highly divided country with two rival administrations, Dbeibah, dependent on Turkey for his shaky grip on power, can hardly afford a political setback such as this since over the previous month his authority has been challenged by violent clashes in the capital between rival militias.
News of the meeting had sparked protests in some…
2023-08-30 06:09:14
Article from www.theguardian.com