The Ministry of Oil and Gas for Libya's interim Government of National Unity announced on Wednesday its "position rejecting the joining of organizations or forums attended by the Zionist entity or in which it is a member, especially in areas related to the oil and gas sector."

This came in a statement against the backdrop of the disclosure of a meeting between the now fired Minister of Foreign Affairs Najla Mangoush with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Rome, under the auspices of the Italian government.

The meeting sparked widespread reactions in Libya, with popular protests erupting in the streets of Tripoli and its suburbs on Sunday evening in rejection of normalization with Israel. The protests spread to other cities where youths blocked roads, burned tires and waved the Palestinian flag.

The statement stressed "there are values and constants established among the noble Libyan people against the Zionist entity because of the crimes of occupying the holy lands, the violation of the sanctities of the Islamic nation, brutality against the brotherly Palestinian people and the practice of the most heinous systems of racial discrimination."