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By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 5 September, 2017.
Algeria pans to reopen its embassy in Tripoli, its foreign minister, Abdelkader Messahel, has told Algerian parliamentarians.
“Algeria will be in Tripoli soon,” he said, responding to a question in parliament on the subject.
Algeria withdrew its envoys in 2014 along with most other diplomatic missions. However, in concert with Tunisia and Egypt, it has since sought to play an active role in promoting agreement among Libyan players on the basis of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA).
This April, Messahel himself travelled throughout the country canvassing political opinion and trying to nail down what amendments to the LPA would be mutually acceptable to all the political leaders.
Yesterday in Algiers, the foreign minister said that during his first meeting with the new UNSMIL chief Ghassan Salamé, he had stressed the desire of Libya’s neighbours to get all the rival parties round the table to find a consensus that would end the political and military crisis.
Messahel gave no date for the return to Tripoli of Algerian diplomats. In January 2015, after the mission had been withdrawn, the embassy building was bombed allegedly by Islamists. Two diplomatic corps guards and a passer-by were injured in the attack.
