- World Window

- The US is also upset that Israel's foreign minister has disclosed the details of a secret meeting with the foreign minister of Libya. Violence breaks out in Libya

There are 193 member countries of the United Nations, one of them is Israel. Since the proposal to recognize Israel in 1947 and the recognition of a separate country in 1949, there has been widespread opposition to the recognition of Israel. The Arab League countries were never in favor of Israel being recognized, and still are not. All those countries support Palestine. 15 of the 22 members of the Arab League have not recognized Israel as an independent nation even after seven and a half decades. One of the countries that deny the existence of Israel is Libya.

Italy gave independence to Libya in 1947. In 1951, the Libyan constitution came into force. Libya, a member of the Arab League from the beginning, did not recognize Israel. No diplomatic relations were established with Israel. Within a few years, Libya descended into internal chaos. The military revolted and overthrew the elected government. In 1969, the military officer Gaddafi came to rule Libya. Gaddafi's Israel policy was fundamentalist. Far from recognizing Israel, Gaddafi openly supported separatist groups fighting against Israel. Libya was one of the few Arab League countries that were ready to go to war for Palestine. In the Arab-Israeli war, Gaddafi sent a huge army to the front.

Muslim countries were on the ground to destroy the existence of Israel. Turkey, a country with a Muslim majority, became an exception. Diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel were established in 1949 and Turkey opened an embassy in Israel. With the exception of countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, some Muslim countries softened a bit due to Turkey's Israel policy. Later, Palestine-Israel also made a historic peace agreement in 1993, but permanent peace was not established on the border. Many Arab countries started supporting separatist terrorist organizations to fight against Israel. Those countries included Gaddafi-ruled Libya.

As long as Gaddafi was in power, there was no possibility that Israel-Libya diplomatic relations would be established. Gaddafi, who sat on the throne of Libya since 1969, ruled not for two-five years, but for 42 years. Israeli-Libyan relations did not warm until the civil war in Libya and the overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011, ending his long rule.

Gaddafi was under political pressure in the last few months to negotiate with Israel. During that period, Gaddafi entrusted his son Saif al-Islam with the task of negotiating peace with Israel, but the talks did not take place after the end of Gaddafi's rule.

Secret talks between the two countries started after 2015 with the efforts of America. Israel's foreign policy has been changing for a few years now. Israel resumes strained relations with Turkey. After Shahbaz Sharif became Prime Minister of Pakistan, a nine-member delegation headed by former Pakistani Minister for Israel-Pakistan Bilateral Relations, Naseem Ashraf, went on a secret visit to Israel. Last year, a historic agreement was reached between Israel and Lebanon on the Mediterranean Sea. Israel-Lebanon have been at loggerheads for years over gas extraction from the Mediterranean Sea, but US mediation has played a key role. Relations with Gulf countries are also being established. The UAE embassy opened in Israel a year-and-a-half ago and the UAE became the first Gulf country to open an embassy in Israel. Before that, Bahrain had officially recognized Israel. America's direct or indirect influence became important in all these developments. America tried to improve relations between Israel and Libya by the same method. The last meeting between the foreign ministers of these two countries was held in Rome. Israeli Foreign Minister Lee Cohen issued an official statement confirming that the secret meeting had taken place and described the talks in Rome with Libyan Foreign Minister Nazma al-Mangush as historic.

After this announcement by Israel's foreign minister, a huge fire has started to burn in Libya. With a population of 76 million, Libya has two governments. One government is recognized by the UN and its prime minister is Abdul Hamid Dababe. Anger has erupted in Libya after the UN-recognised government's foreign minister, Nazma al-Mangoosh, held a secret meeting with Israel's foreign minister. Nazma has been sacked with immediate effect and is said to have fled the country to Turkey. Prime Minister Abdul Hamid has started an investigation into the meeting incident with Israel. However, there are speculations that the prime minister has also left the country due to increasing violence. Amidst all this, protests are taking place in Libya and violence has flared up. Demonstrators tried to set fire to some government buildings.

Another government in Libya is running in the western province. The leader of the rebel government, General Khalifa Haftar, opposed the incident. The rebel leader infuriated supporters by saying that the Libyan government secretly meeting with Israel to develop ties would hurt Palestinian demands and undermine Libya's Palestine policy. Large-scale demonstrations are expected in Libya due to this. But the US is upset that Israel's foreign minister has revealed the secret meeting. Stephanie Hallett, the US ambassador to Israel, said the announcement of the secret meeting was worrying. This will not only affect Israel-Libya relations, but it will make it difficult to re-establish relations. Responding to America's displeasure, Israel's foreign minister also defended himself: Since there was a possibility of the secret meeting being leaked, we made the official announcement.

America does not agree with this explanation. It is also possible that Israel announced the secret meeting deliberately. It can serve two purposes. Believing that 'if the relations between Libya and Israel improve, then we should improve the relations', other opposing countries were also motivated for bilateral relations. Or prove that the unity of the Arab countries is broken, and Israel succeeds in creating an internal conflict.

Well, it is possible that Israel adopted this strategy even if the secret meeting did not seem particularly fruitful.