Russia will soon reopen its embassy in Libya, Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov said on Monday. Russia relocated its embassy to neighbouring Tunisia in 2014, after the embassy came under attack in October 2013. This forced Moscow to withdraw its diplomatic staff from Libya.
Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Bogdanov said the appointment of the ambassador will be announced soon.
“Our embassy is reopening in Libya in the near future … You will learn about the appointment of an ambassador. Now we need to solve organizational issues, at the moment there is nowhere to work, temporarily, maybe our colleagues will work in some hotel,” Bogdanov said.
In April, officials at the Ministry of the Interior discussed with the Chargé d’Affairs at the Russian Embassy in Libya, Jamshid Poltaev, security mechanisms and arrangements for reopening the Embassy.
Notably, the Adviser to the Speaker of the Libyan Parliament, Fathi Al-Marimi said that Speaker, Ageela Saleh would visit Russia in the coming days.
Al-Marimi said that the visit will address bilateral interests.
Oil-rich Libya has been mired in conflict and violence since the overthrow of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The country is now politically torn between Fathi Bashagha, who was elected by the Libyan Parliament to lead the country in February, and Abdel-Hamid Dbaiba, who refuses to relinquish power.
Tensions have been rising for months in Libya as the two Prime Ministers vie for power; rising fears of renewed conflict two years after a landmark truce.
Dbaiba is also attempting to shore up control and weed out militias aligned with Bashagha. His key concern now is gaining control of various armed factions within Tripoli, who have not aligned definitively with one side or the other.
Notably, fighting between armed groups took place on the western outskirts of Tripoli late last week. As forces aligned with Dbaiba further consolidated their control over the capital.