By Maha Sulaiman.
Benghazi, 22 January 2015:
The Foreign Ministry in Beida has replaced Fayez Jibril as Libya’s ambassador in Cairo, according to . . .[restrict]the Beida offices of the Libyan news agency LANA. It says that the new acting ambassador is the Mohamed Salah, until now Consul-General in Alexandria.
Cairo is currently one of the most important of Libya’s diplomatic postings abroad because of the strong support provided by Egypt to the Thinni government and the Libyan National Army.
No reason has been given for the change although it had been widely rumoured for some weeks that Jibril might be going.
In September, the House of Representatives (HoR) called him in for questioning about the situation of the tens of thousands of Libyan exiles now in Egypt. There have also been concerns expressed in the HoR about the financial problems of Libyan students in Egypt.
Last month, the Tripoli-based Audit Bureau which collaborates with the Hassi regime referred Jibril along with the ambassadors to Tunis and Belgrade to the Public Prosecutor, alleging misappropriation of funds. It claimed that the Cairo embassy had not accounted for LD 831 million. However, the embassies had been told by the HoR not to cooperate with the bureau.
The move was also seen as political: as ambassador in Cairo Jibril has been a key figure in ensuring Egyptian support for the HoR and the Thinni government. [/restrict]
