Jordan to reconsider sending envoy to ‘stabilising’ Libya

AMMAN — Jordan will consider sending an ambassador to Libya at the right time, Mohammad Momani, the government’s spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Momani, who is also minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications told The Jordan Times that “our embassy in Tripoli” is still there but there is no staff in it after the incident that involved the abduction of the Kingdom’s ambassador to Libya two years ago. 

Fawaz Aitan, Jordan’s envoy to Tripoli, was kidnapped in the Libyan capital on April 15, 2014, by masked gunmen, and was released one month later.

Since then, the Kingdom has not sent any diplomat to replace Aitan.

Momani’s remarks regarding sending a new envoy to Libya came in response to a question by The Jordan Times, as some countries that closed their embassies there announced on Wednesday that they would reopen their missions in Tripoli after the arrival of the unity government in the capital following a reconciliation process.

According to news reports, one of Libya’s rival governments has resigned, which will help the UN-brokered unity government to assert itself in Tripoli.

In a statement, the National Salvation Government said it would “cease duties” as executive authority, and therefore absolve itself of responsibility for the country’s fate.

“We put the interests of the nation above anything else, and stress that the bloodshed stop and the nation be saved from division and fragmentation,” the statement read, as quoted by the Associated Press.

It added that Western nations view the new unity government as the best hope for ending Libya’s chaos and uniting all factions against an increasingly powerful Daesh affiliate, which has seized the central city of Sirte. Another government, based in the eastern city of Tobruk, still opposes the UN-backed body.

Some of the countries that are considering reopening their embassies in Tripoli are France, Turkey, Italy and Tunisia according to news reports.