Blocked roads, burned tires, and the home of the prime minister attacked: in Libya, the announcement, Sunday August 28, of the meeting between the head of Libyan diplomacy Najla Al-Mangoush and her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen, provoked incendiary reactions. The statement, however enthusiastic, of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs echoed a meeting “unpublished” in Rome last week “with the aim of examining the possibilities of cooperation and relations between the countries and the preservation of the heritage of the Libyan Jewish community”.
But the meeting, kept secret in Tripoli, does not pass on the Libyan side while the country does not recognize the existence of Israel and that the normalization of relations with the Jewish state is liable to criminal sanctions there. The information then arouses emotion. On Sunday afternoon, the Libyan Presidential Council asked the head of the government of national unity Abdelhamid Dbeibah for “clarifications” on this meeting recalling that “this does not represent the foreign policy of the Libyan state, does not represent Libyan national constants and is considered a violation of Libyan laws which criminalize normalization with the Zionist entity”. Quickly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by pleading “a fortuitous and unofficial meeting, during a meeting with his Italian counterpart [Antonio Tajani]which involved no discussion, agreement or consultation”.
No matter the details, the answer does not convince the street. In front of the ministry’s headquarters in Tripoli, a crowd of demonstrators gathered in the evening to demand “the fall of the government”. Further east of the capital, other groups formed and set fire to the residence of the Prime Minister, Mr. Dbeibah. In Tajoura, Zaouïa and several other large cities in western Libya, many demonstrations are organized. Cornered, the Prime Minister finally decided overnight to suspend Mr.me Mangoush from office and announced that she will face a “administrative inquiry”. On Monday, he even went to formalize his “dismissal” from the Palestinian Embassy in Tripoli. The ousted minister reportedly fled to Turkey on a private government jet, reports the Libyan press.
“Fuse”
By placing the blame on the diplomat, Mr. Dbeibah thus pleads his ignorance of such a meeting and thus uses her as a “fuse”, says Jalel Harchaoui, associate researcher at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. He does ” no doubt ” according to him that the prime minister was aware of the meeting, information confirmed by two Libyan officials to The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity. “Dbeibah has already sent signals of his willingness to talk to Israel”observes the researcher, specifying that the Prime Minister whose mandate expired in December 2021 “ actively seeks to please foreign nations” to stay in power.
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