Libyan parliament orders diplomats to leave countries backing Israel

TRIPOLI, Libya — The Libyan parliament demands the departure of ambassadors from countries that “support” Israel as it fights Hamas in Gaza, taking specific aim at the United States, Britain, France and Italy.

In a statement published on its official website, the eastern-based parliament — backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar in Libya split between two rival administration — threatens to cut energy supplies if “massacres” against Palestinians did not stop.

“We demand that the ambassadors of the states which support the Zionist entity (Israel) in its crimes leave the territory (of Libya) immediately,” the statement says.

“If the massacres committed by the Zionist enemy do not stop, we demand that the Libyan government suspend the export of oil and gas to the states that support it,” it continues.

The parliament denounced “in the strongest terms” the actions of “the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Italy.”

It said these nations “support the Zionist entity in its crimes” in the Gaza Strip, while their leaders “lecture on human rights and the right of peoples to self-determination.”