Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported that Israel has been in talks with Libya’s Transitional Council in a bid to establish ties with the country and open an Israeli embassy in Tripoli.
According to the paper, "the opening of the Israeli Embassy in Libya will be in cooperation with Qatar", which Israel believes to be an ally and which would facilitate the opening of Israeli embassies in a number of Arab countries.
British sources confirmed to the paper that meetings are being held by a number of Libyan Jews living in the UK, headed by Raphael Luzon, with some officials in the British government, as well as officials from the Transitional Council.
The Israeli paper disclosed the name of the diplomat nominated for the position of the first Israeli Ambassador to Libya, explaining that he "is of Arab Druze origin, called Raslan Abu Rakoun, currently holding the post of General Vice-Consul of Israel in Atlanta."
Haaretz added, Rakoun will visit Libya in the very near future, heading a special mission, accompanied by some Arab Israeli doctors as a "medical initiative" toward the Libyan people.
The Jewish community of Libya, which traced its history back to antiquity, numbered around 30,000 people in the 1930s but when Muammar Gaddafi came to power in 1969 only a few hundred remained. The Jewish community had already been decimated by pogroms carried out by Muslims angered over the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Gaddafi, who was killed by the Libyan rebels in October, confiscated private and communal Jewish property, withheld civil rights for Jews and forbade those who had taken refuge abroad from returning.