Ashraf Abdul Wahab.
Tripoli, 4 October 2013:
Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdul Aziz has denied that Libyan authorities advised Russian diplomats to leave . . .[restrict]the country because their security could not be guaranteed.
When Russia announced that it was evacuating diplomatic staff, following an attack on its embassy in Tripoli, it apparently quoted Libyan authorities as saying that they could not guarantee security and recommended evacuating diplomats.
“It is not true, we are not able to make these kind of recommendations,” said Abdul Aziz in a televised statement. “The request was for the Russian ambassador to leave the embassy and spend the night in a hotel or somewhere else safe.”
He claimed that the ambassador, however, received instruction from Moscow to remain in the embassy and leave the country in the morning. [/restrict]