The Libyan Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, has denied entry visa for Germany’s special envoy for Libya, Christian Buck, Africa Intelligence has reported, adding that other Western diplomats have been prevented from travelling to Misrata to meet Dbeibah’s rival, Fathi Bashagha.
Buck, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s special envoy and Germany’s former ambassador to Tripoli, had his visa request rejected by the Libyan Prime Minister in late August.
The website said a mini-summit on Libya in Berlin on 9 September brought the envoys of the so-called P3+2 group (United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy) together with those of Turkey and Egypt, but no-one representing Libya attended.
This was because the German diplomat Christian Buck, who was in charge of organizing the meeting and who had proposed that Libya send a “unified” delegation composed of representatives of the rival camps and members of civil society, was unable to go to Libya to prepare for the event.
Dbeibah was upset at Buck’s plans to travel to Misrata after Tripoli to meet Bashagha, who was appointed in February by the House of Representatives in eastern Libya to succeed him.
According to the website, Buck was following the informal position of the P3+2 countries, which are trying to maintain a balance in their dealings with the two Libyan rivals.
Dbeibah also took it out on the US ambassador Richard Norland, his British counterpart Caroline Hurndall and the Middle East director of Britain’s foreign ministry last July and August as they were allowed to visit Tripoli, but were prevented from travelling to Misrata or eastern Libya.
The diplomatic restrictions by Dbeibah continued for Washington, as a US Reaper drone operated by the US military command for Africa, AFRICOM, was shot down on 24 August over Benghazi.
The US military said the drone was on a reconnaissance mission ahead of a trip by the US ambassador to Benghazi.
“Dbeiabh cannot be held responsible for this event. The drone could only have been shot down by eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) or his Russian mercenary supporters from the Wagner firm.” According to the website.
