Libya’s Amin, Türkiye’s Yilmaz Discuss Efforts to Enhance Security Cooperation, Facilitate Visas

 Libya’s PM Fathi Bashagha during his meeting with Germany’s special envoy and ambassador to Libya Christian Buck and Michael Ohnmacht. (Buck’s Twitter account)
Libya’s PM Fathi Bashagha during his meeting with Germany’s special envoy and ambassador to Libya Christian Buck and Michael Ohnmacht. (Buck’s Twitter account)
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Libya’s Amin, Türkiye’s Yilmaz Discuss Efforts to Enhance Security Cooperation, Facilitate Visas

 Libya’s PM Fathi Bashagha during his meeting with Germany’s special envoy and ambassador to Libya Christian Buck and Michael Ohnmacht. (Buck’s Twitter account)
Libya’s PM Fathi Bashagha during his meeting with Germany’s special envoy and ambassador to Libya Christian Buck and Michael Ohnmacht. (Buck’s Twitter account)

The Ministry of the Interior of Libya’s interim unity government, headed by Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, said that its Undersecretary for District Affairs, Bashir al-Amin, held talks on Thursday with Türkiye’s ambassador to Libya Kenan Yilmaz.

They discussed a number of common security issues between the Libyan and Turkish interior ministries, as well as means to enhance security coordination in the field of training and qualifying security personnel.

Talks also touched on the problems facing Libyan citizens to obtain the Turkish visa and efforts to overcome the challenges, in coordination with both countries’ embassies and relevant authorities.

Separately, Dbeibeh underscored the importance of determining specific dates to issue the constitutional basis for the elections, stressing that it should be fair and unbiased.

This came during his meeting with heads of some political parties in Tripoli on Thursday. He also called for preparing alternative solutions.

According to a statement circulated by his office, Dbeibeh further underlined the importance of the political parties’ participation in the political process as the basis of the democratic process.

He also reviewed the government's vision, which requires setting a new road map that leads directly to the elections.

The party leaders, for their part, underlined the need to issue a new regulation for the law governing parties and political organizations, in line with the developments taking place.



Blinken: US Will Continue to Press Israel to Do More to Spare Humanitarian Sites in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
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Blinken: US Will Continue to Press Israel to Do More to Spare Humanitarian Sites in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday the United States will continue to urge Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli airstrike on a UN school complex sheltering displaced Palestinians killed six UN staffers.

When asked at a news conference in the Polish capital about Israel’s bombing of the school complex in central Gaza the day before, Blinken told reporters that “we need to see humanitarian sites protected.”

“That’s something we continue to raise with Israel,” he said.

Wednesday's strike on the UN-supported al-Jaouni Preparatory Boys School in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, killed at least 14 people, including two children and a woman, hospital officials said. Among those killed were six staffers from the UN Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in Gaza.

UNRWA described the strike as the deadliest single incident for its staff members. Among those killed at the school, it said, were the manager of the shelter and others working to help the thousands of displaced people taking refuge there, including teachers.

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said at least 220 UNRWA staffers have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military offensive began in response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Blinken blamed Hamas for continuing to hide its fighters among civilians and said the bombing “underscores the urgency" of reaching a cease-fire in the embattled territory.