People burn photos showing Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush in Tripoli, Libya, Sunday, Aug. 27, 2023. Cohen and Mangoush met in the Italian capital, Rome, last week, according to the Israeli foreign ministry. [Picture: AP Photo/Yousef Murad]
A recent encounter between officials from Libya and Israel might have been meant to “test the waters” for the normalisation of ties between the two nations. That is according to a researcher.
Speaking in an interview on Salaamedia, senior researcher at Afrasid, Thembisa Fakude, suggested talks between Najma Mangoush, Libya’s foreign minister, and her Israeli counterpart were coordinated but disguised as a chance encounter.
“There is no way that the Libyan government did not know about this. This was a meeting that was pre-arranged and it was mainly to test the waters on how the Libyans were going to respond and we have seen how the Libyans are responding.”
When the news broke of the meeting, reportedly on the sidelines of a summit in Rome, Libyans took to the streets to vent their displeasure. Although President Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh launched an investigation, Mangoush has reportedly fled the country for Turkiye.
SMread: The challenge of electoral reform in South Africa
Abraham Accords
The Abraham Accords, ratified in 2020, are a series of agreements aimed at normalising ties between the apartheid Israel and several predominantly Muslim Arab countries. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were the first to normalise ties, although others have since followed.
Fakude believed it was plausible to suggest Libya was interested in normalising ties with Israel, too, considering Morocco and Sudan had recently done so. He said, “One wouldn’t be surprised that the government of Libya was aware of this and there were others, including the United States and Italians, who were involved in arranging this meeting which has since backlashed.”
He also pointed out the potential influence of the UAE in convincing other BRICS members to take the same route. “The UAE is the arch promoter of these Abrahamic Accords, so one anticipates much more lobbying within BRICS, particularly to countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia to normalise relations with Israel,” he added.
However, he cautioned against buying into the idea that the Abraham Accords might bring an end to Israel’s fatal aggression against Palestine.
“You can’t be achieving peace in any way or form when the Israeli government continues its oppression of the Palestinian people … Over the past couple of weeks, they’ve empowered right-wing settlers who are now going on a rampage, killing and attacking innocent Palestinians,” he noted.
