By Libya Herald reporter.
Tobruk, 25 November 2015:
The House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee has decided that Libyan embassies abroad are generally . . .[restrict]overstaffed and the number of diplomats should be reduced. The decision came during a meeting today in which the committee focussed on Libya’s diplomatic service. It has been criticised for giving too many jobs abroad to too many well-connected people.
The meeting itself follows unofficial reports that the Foreign Ministry has decided on a handful of key diplomatic appointments – all political figures rather than career diplomats, three of them women.
Wafa Bughaigis, the former Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, is said to have been made Chargé d’Affaires in Washington where there has been no ambassador since Ali Suleiman Aujali resigned at the beginning of last year.
Former lawyer and NTC member Salwa Deghali has been appointed as the head of Libya’s UN office in Geneva and Libyan representative to UN organisations based in the Swiss city such as WHO and UNHCR.
Fareeda Al-Alagi is to be the new Libyan ambassador to the EU.
Also, former first Deputy President of the General National Congress Ezzidden Al-Awami has been nominated Libyan ambassador in Rome, former Culture Minister Habib Al-Amin as ambassador in Malta and Marj businessman and prominent National Forces Alliance member Sharif Alwafi as the envoy in Beirut.
So far there has been formal approval for any of these appointments from the HoR although the Foreign Affairs Committee is said to have given the nod despite reservations about Al-Amin’s ambassadorship to Malta.
There has been no announcement about a new ambassador to Jordan to replace Mohamed Agheirani, sacked in September after he agreed to become foreign minister in Omar Al-Hassi’s antigovernment in Tripoli.
The Committee is also believed to be planning to call back the Libya ambassador in Brazil following unconfirmed allegations that he supports Libya Dawn.
Meanwhile the government in Beida has appointd Mohammed Kamal Bazaza, who was a member of the GNC’s media office, as its official spokesman. His father, Kamal Bazaza, a colonel in Libya intelligence, was assassinated by militants a year ago. [/restrict]
