Libya dismisses foreign minister Mangoush over talks with Israel

The suspension of Libya’s Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush was on Monday upgraded to a sack by the Prime Minister in an effort to contain the protests over Mangoush’s meeting with her Israeli counterpart last week.

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

A Libyan official said Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah had asked Italy to arrange the meeting in the hopes of gaining stronger U.S. and other international backing for his interim government.

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 al-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 Gaddafi 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 and the Palestinian flag was raised in central Benghazi, but there was no sign of violence.