JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an order Tuesday mandating that his office approve all secret diplomatic meetings in advance, his spokesperson said, as officials scrambled to contain the growing diplomatic firestorm over Israel’s disclosure that its top diplomat had met with his Libyan counterpart.
The exposure of the first-ever known encounter between Israeli and Libyan foreign ministers ignited angry street protests in several Libyan cities and sent Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush fleeing to Turkiye for fear of her safety.
Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who heads one of the country’s rival governments, said he was temporarily suspending Mangoush from her position over the reported meeting. Libya has a history of unremitting hostility toward Israel.
Netanyahu sent the directive Tuesday to all government ministries, requesting they receive approval from his office before conducting any covert political talks. The order also asked that Netanyahu personally approve the publication of news concerning such sensitive meetings.
A Netanyahu aide, Topaz Luk, said Netanyahu issued the order in response to fallout from the Libya scandal. It was not known if Netanyahu knew about Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s meeting with Mangoush ahead of time.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced Sunday that Cohen met Mangoush in Rome last week in what it hailed as a “historic” step toward the normalization of ties with Libya.
Having established diplomatic ties with the UAE and Bahrain, during the Trump administration, Netanyahu’s government anxiously wants to do so with other Arab states to change its status in its long-hostile neighborhood and end its regional isolation.
But the backlash served as a glaring reminder that despite the warming ties between Israel and the Arab world, challenges remain as ordinary citizens in the region still oppose closer relations with Israel.
Within hours of the revelation, Mangoush was on a plane to Turkiye, Dbeibah announced her suspension and Netanyahu’s political opponents were seizing on the crisis to criticize the foreign minister and his lack of discretion.
A ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes diplomacy, said the ministry was forced to go public after an Israeli news site learned about the meeting. Israeli media said the acting United States ambassador to Israel, Stephanie Hallett, had expressed American displeasure with the Israeli announcement in a meeting with Cohen on Monday. The US Embassy had no immediate comment.
In Libya, protests erupted for a second straight night Monday over the prospect of normalization with Israel. Demonstrators set tires ablaze, waved Palestinian national flags and chanted against Dbeibah, the prime minister.
The leader of Libya’s Tripoli-based administration in the country’s west, Dbeibah has defied calls for him to hand over power. The oil-rich nation has for years been split between two rival governments in its eastern and western halves. Each side has been backed by armed groups and foreign governments.
Libya was plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011. Qaddafi was hostile to Israel and a staunch supporter of the Palestinians, including radical militant groups.
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Israeli PM orders ministries to get his OK before secret talks, as drama over Libya meeting persists
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Israeli PM orders ministries to get his OK before secret talks, as drama over Libya meeting persists
- Netanyahu sent the directive Tuesday to all government ministries, requesting they receive approval from his office before conducting any covert political talks
- Netanyahu sent the directive Tuesday to all government ministries, requesting they receive approval from his office before conducting any covert political talks
Trump tells Iranians ‘help on its way’
- US president says Iranians should 'keep protesting' and that he canceled all meetings with Iranian officials
- Successive nights of mass protests nationwide may have killed thousands, NGO says
PARIS: US President Donald Trump urged Iranians on Tuesday to keep protesting against the country’s theocratic leadership, telling them “help is on its way” as international outrage grows over a crackdown one rights group said has likely killed thousands.
Iranian authorities insisted they had regained control after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since Thursday that have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.
Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an Internet blackout that has now lasted almost five days.
New videos on social media, whose location AFP verified, showed bodies lined up in the Kahrizak morgue just south of the Iranian capital, with the corpses wrapped in black bags and distraught relatives searching for loved ones.
International phone links were restored on Tuesday, but only for outgoing calls, according to an AFP journalist, and the quality remains spotty, with frequent interruptions.
Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said Iranians should continue their nationwide protests, take over institutions and record the names of “killers and abusers.”
“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “I have canceled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be.
European nations also signalled their anger, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom among the countries that summoned their Iranian ambassadors to protest what French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called “state violence unquestioningly unleashed on peaceful protesters.”
“The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,” said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, vowing further sanctions against those responsible.
- ‘In the thousands’ -
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it had confirmed 734 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely far higher.
“The figures we publish are based on information received from fewer than half of the country’s provinces and fewer than 10 percent of Iran’s hospitals. The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands,” the director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.
Fears have also grown that the Islamic republic could use the death penalty to crack down on the protests after Tehran prosecutors said Iranian authorities will press capital charges of “moharebeh,” or “waging war against God,” against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations.
“Concerns are mounting that authorities will once again resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions to crush and deter dissent,” Amnesty International said.
IHR highlighted the case of Erfan Soltani, 26, who was arrested last week in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj and who, according to a family source, has already been sentenced to death and is due to be executed as early as Wednesday.
Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies. Authorities have declared three days of national mourning for those killed.
Amir, an Iraqi computer scientist, returned to Baghdad on Monday and described dramatic scenes in Tehran.
“On Thursday night, my friends and I saw protesters in Tehran’s Sarsabz neighborhood amid a heavy military presence. The police were firing rubber bullets,” he told AFP in Iraq.
‘Last days’
The government on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a “warning” to the United States.
In power since 1989 and now 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel, which resulted in the killing of top security officials and forced him to go into hiding.
“When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, then it is effectively finished,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a trip to India. “I believe that we are now witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime.”
Analysts, however, have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership has, including the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which are charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.
“These protests arguably represent the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic in years, both in scale and in their increasingly explicit political demands,” Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Center for International Studies in Paris, told AFP.
She said it was unclear if the protests would unseat the leadership, pointing to “the sheer depth and resilience of Iran’s repressive apparatus.”
Iranian authorities insisted they had regained control after successive nights of mass protests nationwide since Thursday that have posed one of the biggest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.
Rights groups accuse the government of fatally shooting protesters and masking the scale of the crackdown with an Internet blackout that has now lasted almost five days.
New videos on social media, whose location AFP verified, showed bodies lined up in the Kahrizak morgue just south of the Iranian capital, with the corpses wrapped in black bags and distraught relatives searching for loved ones.
International phone links were restored on Tuesday, but only for outgoing calls, according to an AFP journalist, and the quality remains spotty, with frequent interruptions.
Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Iran with military intervention, said Iranians should continue their nationwide protests, take over institutions and record the names of “killers and abusers.”
“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “I have canceled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”
It was not immediately clear what meetings he was referring to or what the nature of the help would be.
European nations also signalled their anger, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom among the countries that summoned their Iranian ambassadors to protest what French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called “state violence unquestioningly unleashed on peaceful protesters.”
“The rising number of casualties in Iran is horrifying,” said EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, vowing further sanctions against those responsible.
- ‘In the thousands’ -
The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) said it had confirmed 734 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely far higher.
“The figures we publish are based on information received from fewer than half of the country’s provinces and fewer than 10 percent of Iran’s hospitals. The real number of those killed is likely in the thousands,” the director of Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights (IHR) Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.
Fears have also grown that the Islamic republic could use the death penalty to crack down on the protests after Tehran prosecutors said Iranian authorities will press capital charges of “moharebeh,” or “waging war against God,” against some suspects arrested over recent demonstrations.
“Concerns are mounting that authorities will once again resort to swift trials and arbitrary executions to crush and deter dissent,” Amnesty International said.
IHR highlighted the case of Erfan Soltani, 26, who was arrested last week in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj and who, according to a family source, has already been sentenced to death and is due to be executed as early as Wednesday.
Iranian state media has said dozens of members of the security forces have been killed, with their funerals turning into large pro-government rallies. Authorities have declared three days of national mourning for those killed.
Amir, an Iraqi computer scientist, returned to Baghdad on Monday and described dramatic scenes in Tehran.
“On Thursday night, my friends and I saw protesters in Tehran’s Sarsabz neighborhood amid a heavy military presence. The police were firing rubber bullets,” he told AFP in Iraq.
‘Last days’
The government on Monday sought to regain control of the streets with mass nationwide rallies that supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hailed as proof that the protest movement was defeated, calling them a “warning” to the United States.
In power since 1989 and now 86, Khamenei has faced significant challenges, most recently the 12-day war in June against Israel, which resulted in the killing of top security officials and forced him to go into hiding.
“When a regime can only hold on to power through violence, then it is effectively finished,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a trip to India. “I believe that we are now witnessing the last days and weeks of this regime.”
Analysts, however, have cautioned that it is premature to predict the immediate demise of the theocratic system, pointing to the repressive levers the leadership has, including the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which are charged with safeguarding the Islamic revolution.
“These protests arguably represent the most serious challenge to the Islamic republic in years, both in scale and in their increasingly explicit political demands,” Nicole Grajewski, professor at the Sciences Po Center for International Studies in Paris, told AFP.
She said it was unclear if the protests would unseat the leadership, pointing to “the sheer depth and resilience of Iran’s repressive apparatus.”
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