Reuters said that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appeared on Sunday to shift blame to his Foreign Minister, for the disclosure of a secret meeting with the Libyan counterpart, Najla Al-Mangoush, that had caused a backlash in Tripoli.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s office on August 26 went public with his having met Najla Mangoush, his Libyan counterpart, in Italy earlier in the month. The statement came on the heels of an Israeli media report about the meeting.
“It is not helpful, now that’s clear,” Netanyahu told Cypriot TV station ANT1 when asked about the publication of the meeting, according to Reuters.
He said he had issued a directive to all his government ministers that such meetings of this kind had to be cleared in advance with his office, and certainly their publication had to be cleared in advance with his office.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said in his first comment on the Rome sit-down between Al-Mangoush and her Israeli counterpart Cohen that “what happened in Rome was a serious matter, even if it was a side meeting or occurred by chance.”
“This requires a harsh response to serve as a lesson for preserving the nation’s sanctities.” Dbeibah said in a cabinet meeting on Thursday, when he added that the circumstances, reasons and method of the meeting: regardless of good or bad intentions, would be known in detail through the ongoing investigations.
It’s worth mentioning that Israeli news network, Arutz Sheva, revealed that the meeting between Al-Mangoush and Israeli counterpart Cohen was authorized by the Prime Minister Dbeibah, adding that he had agreed to the meeting with the Italian Prime Minister during his recent visit to Rome, whose government promised Dbeibah the return of direct flights between Italy and Libya in exchange.
