Najla Mohammed Al-Mangoush is a Libyan lawyer, politician and university professor, born in 1973 in Britain, who is the first Libyan woman to assume the foreign affairs portfolio in her country, within the transitional government headed by Abdul Hamid Dabaiba, which came out of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum in Geneva in 2020.

Birth and upbringing

Najla Al-Mangoush was born in the city of Cardiff, Wales, Britain, on the seventh of June 1973, to a Libyan family with 4 children, and her father, Dr. Muhammad Al-Mangoush, was a hematologist at the time, and he was a teacher there in Britain.

She grew up in Benghazi, the largest city in eastern Libya, after returning with her family when she was six years old, then traveling to the United States and settling there for eight years after the outbreak of the February 8 revolution with her two children after her divorce from their father.

Najla Mangoush at a news conference after a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow in 2021 (Reuters)

Study and training

She received her M.A. in Criminal Law from Garyounis University (University of Benghazi), her MSc in Conflict and Peace Management from Eastern Mennonite University in Virginia, and her Ph.D. in Conflict and Peace Management from George Mason University.

She was awarded a renowned Fulbright Master's Scholarship in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CGB) in the United States. She then worked as a professor of law and a lawyer in criminal law.

Political experience

She assumed the position of foreign minister in the government of Abdul Hamid Dabaiba in March 2021, and remained there until her dismissal on August 28, 2023, against the backdrop of her meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, whom the government considered an individual and irresponsible act that does not represent its orientations.

The incident of meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Rome was not the first that caused Najla Al-Mangoush to be suspended from work or criticism of her, as on the sixth of November 2021, a decision was issued by the Presidential Council to suspend her from work, due to what he called an attempt to "single her out foreign policy", and the suspension decision included a travel ban.

Shortly after assuming the foreign affairs portfolio after the House of Representatives gave her confidence on March 2021, <>, Al-Mangoush sparked controversy after her statements that the Libyan government insists on the withdrawal of Turkish forces from the country and avoids talking about "Russian mercenaries" and Africans on the other side, which some considered its support for retired Major General Khalifa Haftar.

The Presidential Council suspended the duties of Foreign Minister Al-Mangoush, days before an international conference in Paris in 2021, which aimed to prepare for the presidential elections in the country, and announced at the time the opening of an investigation into what it called "administrative violations", and the decision stipulated that the minister would be banned from traveling until the investigation with her is completed.

Al-Mangoush's remarks to the British channel "BBC" on the Lockerbie case, which dates back to 1988, also sparked a dispute between the Presidential Council, the House of Representatives and the High Council of State.

The Libyan authorities closed the Lockerbie case permanently in 2003, but al-Mangoush stated that the Libyan government was ready to cooperate with the United States in the case in which one of the defendants, Abu Ajila al-Marimi, was extradited to the United States.