The Prime Minister of Libya announced on Sunday that he had fired Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush. The meeting between the foreign ministers of Israel and Libya was arranged through Italy.
Satu-Maria Niikko,
Sari Taussi
Libya’s Prime Minister announced the dismissal of Foreign Minister Mangoush after Israel told Mangoush and Israel’s Foreign Minister That is, Cohen’s having met last week in Rome.
Libya and Israel do not have official diplomatic relations.
News of the meeting sparked protests in Libya.
– Najla Mangoush has been temporarily suspended and a commission led by the Minister of Justice will conduct an administrative investigation, the Libyan Prime Minister Dbeibah of Abdulham announced.
The meeting was organized with the help of Italy
According to Israel, Mangoushi and Cohen met in Rome and discussed possible cooperation and, among other things, the preservation of Libyan Jewish heritage. The meeting is hosted by the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
Libya has downplayed the importance of the meeting and said it was an unprepared and informal meeting at the premises of the Italian Foreign Ministry.
The Libyan Presidential Council has asked the country’s government for clarifications about the meeting. According to the request, developments such as the meeting “do not reflect the foreign policy of the Libyan state and do not represent Libyan national norms, and are considered a violation of Libyan laws that criminalize the normalization of the Zionist entity.”
Gaddafi expelled the Jews from Libya
On the streets of Tripoli, the news of the meeting sparked demonstrations on Sunday evening against the normalization of relations between Libya and Israel. In protests that spread to other cities, young people blocked roads, burned tires and waved Palestinian flags.
Libya has a historically strong Jewish heritage, but the country’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi strongly supported Palestine, and during his decades-long reign, thousands of Jews were expelled from Libya and many synagogues were destroyed.
Gaddafi, who ruled autocratically, was ousted and killed in 2011 in a popular uprising supported by NATO. Since then, the country has been in chaos. Libya is politically divided between two competing regimes – in the west the Tripoli government holds power and in the east
Since 2020, Israel has attempted to normalize relations with some Arab countries as part of US-backed agreements.
Source: AFP, Reuters