Mere formality left before Carmelo Saliba takes up residency as Malta’s ambassador to Libya – Carmelo Abela

Albert Galea All that is left to do before Carmelo Saliba takes up residency as Malta’s Ambassador to Libya is the presentation of his credentials to Libya’s President Fajez al-Sarraj, a process which Minister for Foreign Affairs Carmelo Abela described as a ‘formality’.

Carmelo Saliba, who was selected for the role last July, will be the first Maltese Ambassador to Libya in almost five years. Speaking to this newsroom late last November, Abela said that Saliba would ‘soon’ be taking up his residency in the North-African state – but up until now, Saliba still has to take up his new role officially.

Asked by The Malta Independent on Sunday about when Saliba was expected to begin his new position, especially given that the initial announcement of the appointment was made last July, Abela said that Saliba’s nomination had been approved by Malta’s Parliamentary Committee and, recently, by the Libyan government as well.

The North African country’s government had completed all their internal procedures and had accepted Saliba’s nomination, meaning that it was now simply a question of waiting for it to give a date for the presentation ceremony.

This is the only formality left to confirm Saliba’s appointment and, in fact, he was present at the recent meeting with the Libyan Prime Minister in his capacity as Ambassador-designate.

The Maltese Embassy in Tripoli, along with a number of other foreign embassies and missions, left the country in 2014 due to the violent clashes that broke out in the city between rival armed groups.

The re-opening of the Maltese Embassy in Libya represents a concise effort to restart the historical connection that has existed for centuries between Malta and Libya and, in fact, last month Air Malta’s Chief Commercial Officer Paul Sies also confirmed that there was talk of Air Malta resuming flights between Malta and Libya. Currently, only Medavia is operating flights between Malta and Tripoli, using a turboprop aircraft.