TRIPOLI: Libya’s prime minister sacked the foreign minister on Monday in an effort to contain a growing furore over Najla Mangoush’s meeting with her Israeli counterpart last week, which prompted protests in several Libyan cities.

Mangoush had said her meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Rome was unplanned and informal, but an Israeli official said it had lasted two hours and was approved “at the highest levels in Libya”.

Some reports in Libyan media said the foreign minister had left for Turkiye after the furore, but others said she was in the country and had been put on a no-fly list.

The meeting is contentious because Libya does not formally recognise Israel and there is widespread public support across the Libyan political spectrum for the Palestinian cause of creating an independent state in territory Israel occupies.

The dispute over the meeting has fed into Libya’s internal political crisis, giving ammunition to Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah’s internal critics at a moment when the future of his interim government was already in question.

Libya has been without a stable central government since the overthrow of Muammar Qadhafi in 2011. Dbeibah’s interim government, in office since 2021, is not recognised by some major factions and there is growing political momentum to replace it with a new unified administration aimed at holding national elections.

Protesters demonstrated in front of Libya’s foreign ministry late on Sunday, causing some damage outside the building, where a large security presence was visible early on Monday.

Protests took place in other parts of Tripoli, as well as other cities.

Burning tyres blocked some major roads in Tripoli on Monday, but there was no sign of violence.

Mangoush’s office tried to quell the anger late on Sunday, saying she had rejected a request for an official meeting with Cohen, but that they had met during an unplanned encounter while she was meeting Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

`Bridge to West’

The Israeli official disputed that account. “The meeting was coordinated at the highest levels in Libya and lasted almost two hours. The Libyan prime minister sees Israel as a possible bridge to the West and the US administration,” the official said.

A second Libyan official said Dbeibah had asked Italy to arrange the meeting in the hopes of gaining stronger US and other international backing for his interim government.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2023