By Ahmed Elumami and Nigel Ash
Tripoli, 27 May 2013:
It has been an eventful day for Libya’s new ambassador to Egypt, Mohamed Fayez . . .[restrict]Abdul-Aziz Jibril. While he was presenting his credentials to the Egyptian government, angry Libyan students stormed his embassy in Cairo and a GNC delegation, including Congress spokesman Omar Hemidan, came under fire while inspecting agricultural land.
The three-man party from the Foreign Investment Committee was attacked by “militiamen” as they examined a 700 acre Libyan-owned wheat and barley farm, on the road between Cairo and Alexandria.
The attackers fired into the air when the delegation started to take pictures, said Congressman Sherif El-Wafi, who represents Marj. No one was hurt in the incident.
“We were in about seven cars from the Libyan embassy to Egypt, but were were not accompanied by guards or any police protection” Wafi told the Libya Herald.
”We have reported the incident to the police and the Libyan ambassador told us that tomorrow morning we have an interview with Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil on this matter.” Al-Wafi said.
Libya has many tourist and agricultural investments in Egypt which were once run by Qaddafi’s cousin Ahmed Qaddaf Al-Dam, who is now under arrest in Cairo, charged with firing at police.
However Libya’s new ambassador had more than the visiting Congressmen to deal with. Besides formally presenting his own credentials, his embassy in Zamalek was stormed by Libyan students studying in Egypt. They were demanding that the Libyan government pay for their courses. The Libyan news agency LANA reported that after first demonstrating noisily outside the building, the students forced their way inside, demanding to see the ambassador, who of course, was not there.
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