After her Israeli counterpart revealed he had spoken with her last week in Rome, the head of the Libyan government stated Sunday that he had suspended his foreign minister.
Najla al-Mangoush has been “temporarily suspended” and will be subject to an “administrative investigation” by a commission chaired by the justice minister, Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said on Sunday evening in an official decision posted on Facebook.
Although the meeting was described as a “chance and unofficial encounter” by the Libyan foreign ministry, news of it had already sparked street protests in a number of Libyan cities.
After Israel’s foreign ministry claimed that the foreign ministers of the two nations had met the week prior, the political dispute erupted on Sunday.
The statement said that at a meeting in Rome that was sponsored by the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Eli Cohen, the foreign minister of Israel, and Mangoush, his counterpart from Libya in the Tripoli-based government, talked.
It was referred to as the first such diplomatic effort between the two nations in the Israeli statement.
“I spoke with the foreign minister about the great potential for the two countries from their relations,” Cohen said in the statement from Israel’s foreign ministry.
But the Libyan foreign ministry said Sunday evening that Mangoush had “refused to meet with any party” representing Israel.
“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,” the ministry said in a statement.
COMBO Najla Al Mangoush e Eli Cohen
The minister had reiterated “in a clear and unambiguous manner Libya’s position regarding the Palestinian cause”, the statement added.
News of the meeting had sparked protests in some Libyan cities and a letter from the country’s Presidential Council requesting clarification.
The Libyan foreign ministry accused Israel of trying to “present this incident” as a “meeting or talks”.
In the Israel foreign ministry statement, Cohen was quoted as saying 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.
There was no immediate confirmation of the meeting from Rome.
