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By Ajnadin Mustafa
Tripoli, 9 September 2015:
An Italian delegation has been in Tobruk for talks with House of Representatives (HoR) President Ageela . . .[restrict]Salah Gwaider.
According to his media spokesman, Fathi Abdul Karim Al-Marimi, yesterday’s delegation was a diplomatic one and discussed illegal immigration, terrorism and how to ease the process for Libyans obtaining visas for Italy though the Italian consulate in Tunis. The pro-HoR offices of the Libyan news agency LANA also described the delegation as diplomatic, adding that it had been asked to help lift UN sanctions on the supply of arms to Libya.
However, Italian foreign ministry sources have told the Libya Herald that they have no knowledge of a diplomatic team going to Tobruk.
Shedding some light on the situation, a source in Tobruk told this newspaper that in fact the delegation was a security one and that the main issues under discussion were the Islamic State and Libya’s military needs.
There has been a number of private delegations visiting which have been misreported as official ones, but until now it has been the powers in Tripoli that have done so. In January, it announced a major Italian political delegation had arrived when in fact it was a business group. Just last month, it reported that Khalifa Ghwell had met a US official delegation while in Tunis. They turned out to be US oil company representatives. [/restrict]
