Libyan officials on Tuesday ordered EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner and several senior European ministers to leave the country.
Brunner, on a diplomatic mission with government ministers from Italy, Greece and Malta, was declared “persona non grata” and accused of “violations” in Benghazi, according to an official statement published by Libyan officials.
Posting on Facebook after returning to Malta, Byron Camilleri, Malta’s minister for home affairs, said: “Unfortunately the meeting scheduled in Benghazi was cancelled following a protocol issue between the local authorities and the EU Embassy in Libya.”
A Facebook post by his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi made no reference to the unusual incident.
Benghazi is under the de facto control of the Russia-aligned warlord and military leader Khalifa Haftar, who has held sway over the east of the country since it split into two dueling administrations in 2014.
The EU governments were expecting to exclusively meet Haftar and declined an invitation to meet several top eastern officials from the Haftar-backed parallel government, the so-called Government of National Stability, including the foreign minister and prime minister.
The decision caused a “diplomatic incident” because the EU doesn’t recognize the eastern government, said one person familiar with the matter, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive incident.
“The delegations were in the VIP area of the airport and were about to have a meeting, but Haftar wanted several of the ministers (and definitely the PM and the FM of the Eastern Libyan govt) to join the meeting,” a government official from an EU country told POLITICO in a text message. “That was not possible for the EU Commissioner and the EU govts to accept. Brunner had agreed only for a meeting with Haftar. It seems that Haftar’s reaction was staged.”
A European Commission spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO that the EU executive had recently received the information about Brunner and was looking into it.
The delegation has already left Libya, with all officials returning to their respective countries, according to three people familiar with the matter.
This story is being updated. Nektaria Stamouli contributed to this report.
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