Libyan Foreign Minister fired, forced to flee country for meeting with Israeli counterpart in Rome

[NewYorkExpress]

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/28/libya-protests-after-foreign-minister-reportedly-met-with-israeli-official

Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush, under fire for meeting with her Israeli counterpart, has been dismissed, according to senior sources in the government.

Reporting from Tripoli, Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina said sources close to Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah reported al-Mangoush’s dismissal after an earlier announcement of an investigation into her meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen last week in Rome.


Al-Mangoush has been the subject of much speculation since yesterday’s announcement by Cohen, which set off large protests across Libya, including rumours that she had left the country.

Libya’s Internal Security Service responded by denying reports that it had allowed or facilitated her departure and announcing that she was on the list of people barred from travelling.

https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1695927252083413338

https://twitter.com/yairlapid/status/1696040198633586695

https://twitter.com/yairlapid/status/1696040201418592677

https://twitter.com/yairlapid/status/1696040193877229859

[CumbrianLefty]

Maybe making such meetings public isn't such a great idea, just saying.

[Comrade Funk]

This government is a ing joke.

[President Johnson]

This seems like an incredibly childish and ridiculous move.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Power move on the Israeli foreign minister’s part, I have to admit.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Power move on the Israeli foreign minister’s part, I have to admit.

Assuming those who leaked it remain unpunished, they just made it harder for anyone to hold secret meetings with Israel. This is actually quite bad for them in the medium term.

[TDAS04]

Idiotic, but not surprising, considering how many in region feel about Israel. Some Middle Eastern countries have a policy of denying entry to anyone who simply has an Israeli stamp on their passport, and Iran recently banished a weightlifter for shaking hands with a competitor from Israel.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Of course, multiple Arab governments have been covertly (and in a few cases, overtly) cooperating with Israel for decades. That's also been true of even the Islamic Republic of Iran at times, notably in the 80s--I recall a massive political scandal in the US related to that. And while the driving force for that was Israel and Iran's shared enmity toward Saddam Hussein, there was (wishful, desperate, delusional) thinking by some on the Israeli side that they could repair the close relationship they had had with Iran during the Shah's rule.

Needless to say, no one in Israel believes that at this point.

[Pres Mike]

Idiotic, but not surprising, considering how many in region feel about Israel. Some Middle Eastern countries have a policy of denying entry to anyone who simply has an Israeli stamp on their passport, and Iran recently banished a weightlifter for shaking hands with a competitor from Israel.

Really? My family is from Palestine. To travel to the West Bank, you need to travel from Jordan to Israel. Palestitians are not allowed to travel inside Israel.

When you cross the bridge, Israeli officials stamps your passport. Would the other Middle East nations not allow Palestitians in with Israeli stamps on their passport?

[crals]

But why did Israel leak that information? Bizarre.

[CumbrianLefty]

But why did Israel leak that information? Bizarre.

Because they are c***s?

[oldtimer]

Power move on the Israeli foreign minister’s part, I have to admit.

Assuming those who leaked it remain unpunished, they just made it harder for anyone to hold secret meetings with Israel. This is actually quite bad for them in the medium term.

If their aim was to maintain the chaos in Libya why should they be punished ?

[Angel of Death]

But why did Israel leak that information? Bizarre.

It's a combination of incompetence and the hubris of thinking that nobody cares about the Palestinians (any more), not even their fellow Arabs.

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

Power move on the Israeli foreign minister’s part, I have to admit.

Assuming those who leaked it remain unpunished, they just made it harder for anyone to hold secret meetings with Israel. This is actually quite bad for them in the medium term.

If their aim was to maintain the chaos in Libya why should they be punished ?

Even if that was their aim, it would be an incredibly short-sighted move. Most countries benefit from the ability to conduct diplomacy in private; this goes doubly for MENA nations, and triply for Israel in the context of its relations with these nations (many of which - formally - do not maintain relations with Israel at all).

Israel has always had more important goals than giving Libyan politicians a bad day, and (unfortunately) there are "cheaper" ways to do that than compromising their integrity like this.

[oldtimer]

Power move on the Israeli foreign minister’s part, I have to admit.

Assuming those who leaked it remain unpunished, they just made it harder for anyone to hold secret meetings with Israel. This is actually quite bad for them in the medium term.

If their aim was to maintain the chaos in Libya why should they be punished ?

Even if that was their aim, it would be an incredibly short-sighted move. Most countries benefit from the ability to conduct diplomacy in private; this goes doubly for MENA nations, and triply for Israel in the context of its relations with these nations (many of which - formally - do not maintain relations with Israel at all).

Israel has always had more important goals than giving Libyan politicians a bad day, and (unfortunately) there are "cheaper" ways to do that than compromising their integrity like this.

Libya is practically a dead state and has been for 12 years.
The idea that Libya at some point might reconstitute itself to extract respect is currently risible.

So it's a free dunk like on the Somalian government.

A dead horse doesn't kick back when you bash it.