Libya's prime minister has sacked the foreign minister on Monday in an effort to contain a growing furore over her meeting with her Israeli counterpart last week, which prompted protests overnight in several Libyan cities.
Najla Mangoush had said her meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Rome was unplanned and informal, but an Israeli official told Reuters it had lasted two hours and was approved "at the highest levels in Libya".
The meeting is contentious because Libya does not formally recognise Israel and there is widespread public support across the Libyan political spectrum for the Palestinian cause.
Palestinians seek to establish an independent state in territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Protests
The dispute over the meeting has fed into Libya's internal political crisis, giving ammunition to Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah's internal critics at a moment when the future of his interim government was already in question.
Protesters demonstrated in front of Libya's Foreign Ministry late on Sunday, causing some damage outside the building, where a large security presence was visible early on Monday. Protests took place in other parts of Tripoli, as well as other cities.
Burning tyres blocked some major roads in Tripoli on Monday but there was no sign of violence.
Mangoush's office tried to quell the anger, saying she had rejected a request for an official meeting with Cohen, but that they had met during an unplanned encounter while she was meeting Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Rome.
The Israeli official disputed that account. "The meeting was coordinated at the highest levels in Libya and lasted almost two hours.
