Elis Gjevori
Middle East Eye, Aug. 29, 2023
‘I wouldn’t say Israel has gone to great lengths to go up to and beg these actors, it was more the other way around.’
Israeli ties with Libyan political actors are not a secret, in fact they go back at least a decade. But the public and official disclosure by Israel’s foreign minister on Sunday that he had met his Libyan counterpart in Italy was the first of its kind, and has caused a diplomatic firestorm.
Various Libyan political actors condemned the meeting that took place last week between Najla al-Mangoush, a member of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU), and Eli Cohen.
Mangoush was fired from her post by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and subsequently fled the country to Turkey. Cohen’s public disclosure has been condemned by Israeli politicians and analysts as jeopardising the forging of a tentative diplomatic relationship.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has berated the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for publicising the talks that should have remained secret and warned that it had “killed” the prospect of normalisation between the two countries.
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