The former head of Libya's High Council of State, Khaled Al-Mishri said of Sunday that the Government of National Unity (GNU) "crossed all prohibited lines and must be brought down" in response to the news of a meeting by Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen.

Al-Mishri added in a statement: "Due to reports that the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Government of National Unity met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the occupying power and with information indicating the existence of previous meetings by officials in this government and their visits to the occupied Palestinian territories thus this government has exceeded all prohibited religious, national and legal lines, and it has become necessary to drop them."

The meeting between Mangoush and Cohen took place in Rome, and came "with the aim of studying the possibilities of cooperation, building relations between the two countries and preserving the Libyan Jewish heritage", according the Israeli news agency i24.

i24 quoted the Israeli foreign minister as saying in a statement that "the historic meeting with Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush is a first step in relations between Israel and Libya," adding that "the size of Libya and its strategic location give relations with it great importance and enormous potential for the State of Israel."