The head of the Government of National Unity of Libya dismissed the foreign minister on Monday Naila al Mangousin an attempt to contain the growing outcry after her meeting with her Israeli counterpart last week, which sparked overnight protests in several Libyan cities.

Nayla al-Mangoush had said her meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Rome was unscheduled and informal, but an Israeli official told Reuters it lasted two hours and had been approved. “at the highest levels in Libya”.

The meeting is controversial because Libya does not officially recognize Israel and there is widespread popular support across the political spectrum in Libya for the Palestinian cause. The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war.

Protesters gathered outside the Libyan Foreign Ministry late last night, resulting in cause some damage to the exterior of the building. A heavy police presence remains at the scene this morning. Demonstrations also broke out in other areas of Tripoli, but also in other Libyan cities. Major roads were blocked today by burning car tires but there was no sign of violence.

Mangush’s office tried to calm the furor late yesterday, saying she had an “informal” and “unscheduled” meeting with Cohen during her talks with Italian Prime Minister Antonio Tajani. He added that Mangush had previously declined to hold a formal meeting with Cohen.

However, the Israeli official disputed this version. “The meeting was coordinated with Libyan officials at the highest level and lasted almost two hours. The Libyan prime minister sees Israel as a potential bridge with the West and the US government,” he explained.

Israel in 2020 normalized its relations in recent years with some Arab states – United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan–, in the framework of the so-called Abraham Accords, under the auspices of the US. However, the policy of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is criticized by Arab countries, especially after the wave of violence in the occupied West Bank and the continuation of settlements.

Abdulhamid Dbeiba’s transitional Government of National Unity, installed in 2021 through a UN-backed process, is pushing for stronger ties with all countries involved in Libya, including the United Arab Emirates and Israel’s main ally, the United States.

After the NATO-backed insurgency of 2011, the legitimacy of the KEE is disputed by major factions outside Tripoli including the parliament based in eastern Libya.

Parliament said on Sunday it would hold hearings on the meeting. The Tripoli-based Presidential Council asked Dbeiba for clarification on the meeting, and the Supreme Council of State, another important body, condemned it.

Meanwhile, the main security body of Tripoli airport today denied that it had given permission for the foreign minister, who was sacked yesterday, to leave for Turkey.

According to netizens, a Falcon-type plane, which was tracked by the Flightradar application, carried Nayla al-Mangoush to Turkey on the night of Sunday to Monday after receiving permission to depart Tripoli from the Internal Security Agency (ISA).

Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency reported, citing unnamed “security sources,” that Mangous left the Libyan capital for Istanbul aboard a government plane.

The minister was not given permission to leave Libyan territory “through official routes from Mitiga Airport [το μοναδικό της Τρίπολης] either from the regular terminal or from the celebrity terminal,” OEA said in a statement.

Mangous is “on the list of persons prohibited from traveling” abroad, the OEA said, stressing that “surveillance cameras will prove” that she did not leave Mitiga.

He had signed the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum

Mangous and Mevlut Cavusoglu had signed it illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum which caused the strong reaction of Greece.

The 53-year-old lawyer and diplomat was her country’s first female foreign minister, and only the fifth to hold this key post in the Arab world.

He was at the center of the diplomatic episode between Greece and Libya in November 2022 when he attempted to “trap” then-Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias at Tripoli airport, as he agreed to meet only with the president of Libya’s three-member Transitional Presidential Council, Mohamed Younes Menfi, while she herself was waiting for him, which the current Minister of Defense did not accept.