BENGHAZI
Libya's Tobruk-based government has said that Kuwait has rescinded the accreditation of Libya's former envoy to the country – Mohamed Amish of Libya's rival, Tripoli-based government – after Tobruk announced that he was no longer its representative.
"The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry has asked Libya's former ambassador to Kuwait, Mohamed Amish, to depart the country… after the [Tobruk-based] interim government announced that Amish was no longer its representative," the Tobruk government said on Facebook.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, Amish confirmed the move.
"Kuwait withdrew my accreditation after deciding that its diplomatic relations would be with the Tobruk-based government, not the one based in Tripoli," Amish said.
Amish, however, denied that Kuwait had asked him to leave the country, saying that Kuwaiti officials had extended his residence visa – and those of his family – for another year.
"The Tobruk-based government didn't inform me that I had been relieved of my duties – I found out from the Kuwaiti government," Amish said, adding that Libya's Tripoli government still considered him its envoy to Kuwait.
Amish added that diplomatic relations between Kuwait and Tobruk were "consistent with the decisions of Gulf Cooperation Council member states and the Arab League, all of whom recognize the international legitimacy of the Tobruk government."
Libya has remained in a state of turmoil since a bloody uprising ended the decades-long rule of strongman Muammar Gaddafi in late 2011.
Since then, the country's stark political divisions have yielded two rival seats of government, each with its own institutions and military capacities.
Vying for legislative authority are the Tobruk-based House of Representatives and the Islamist-led General National Congress, which convenes in Tripoli.
The two assemblies support two rival governments respectively headquartered in the two cities.
