TRIPOLI: Libya’s interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah rejected reports claiming that he met with Israeli officials in Jordan’s capital Amman.
“That didn’t happen and won’t happen in the future, our stance is firm and clear on the Palestinian cause,” according to a Libyan government statement released Wednesday.
The statement follows Saudi-run Alarabiya Alhadath TV claims earlier Wednesday that Dbeibah met the Israeli intelligence (Mossad) chief in Amman to discuss normalizing relations. The report did not specify a date for the meeting.
Six out of 22 Arab countries – Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Sudan – maintain diplomatic relations with Israel.
In November, reports claimed that putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar’s son Saddam Haftar visited Israel to seek support.
Haftar Jr., whose private jet took off from Dubai, arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Nov. 1, the report by Haaretz said.
During his 90-minute long visit, the putschist general’s son sought Israel’s military and diplomatic support in exchange for establishing diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. However, the report did not identify the officials or individuals whom he spoke to during the visit.
Israel had covertly been supporting eastern-based putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar in Libya against the United Nations-recognized government.
In an opinion piece published by the London-based Middle East Eye, Israeli journalist Yossi Melman said members of Mossad met with Haftar in Cairo several times between 2017 and 2019.
According to Melman, Mossad conducted training for senior self-proclaimed Libyan National Army (LNA) officers in Egypt, offering advice on military tactics, intelligence-gathering and analysis, control and command procedures, as well as helping them acquire night vision equipment and sniper rifles. -Agencies
