By Libya Herald reporter.
Tunis, 7 September 2015:
The “foreign minister” in the internationally unrecognised Tripoli administration, Mohamed El-Ghirani, has been welcomed as . . .[restrict]Libya’s foreign minister in Qatar where he had talks yesterday with its foreign minister Khaled bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah.
Qatar, along with Turkey, is regularly accused by the House of Representatives and the internationally recognised government of Abdullah Thinni in Beida of actively supporting the Tripoli regime.
Officially, Qatar’s policy towards Libya is that of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which it is a member – that the House of Representatives is the legitimate parliament and the Thinni administration the legitimate government. Last December, the GCC, meeting in Doha, issued an explicit statement of support for the HoR and the government.
Yesterday, however, the state-run Qatar news agency QNA referred to Ghirani as Al-Attiyah’s “Libyan counterpart”. It said the two sides has discussed the latest developments in Libya. According to the Libya Observer, which supports the Tripoli administration, Ghirani was expected to have other meetings with Qatari officials “to boost the mutual relations between Libya and Qatar in many fields”.
On Friday, the head of the Tripoli administration, Khalifa Ghwell was again in Ankara for talks with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. He was last in Turkey at the end of June. Friday’s discussion focused on Ankara’s decision to impose visas on visiting Libyans, which Ghwell tried to get the Turks to lift, and the issue of Turkish companies returning to work in Libya.
The two visits are likely to intensify attacks on Qatar and Turkey by the HoR and the Thinni government.
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