A Libyan newspaper, banned for two weeks for attacking Lebanese Shiite parties and some Arab governments, reappeared on newsstands on Monday with a new editor.
Az-Zahf Al-Akhdar, an ideological journal of the Revolutionary Committees, was banned on October 13 for publishing several articles attacking the speaker of Lebanon’s parliament and leader of the Shiite Amal party, Nabih Berri, and the leader of the militant Hezbollah group, Hassan Nasrallah.
The Revolutionary Court, which issued the ban, said the articles harmed Libya’s national interests and relations with some Arab countries and did not reflect the country’s true information policy.
In September, Berri and Nasrallah called on Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi to reveal the whereabouts of Imam Mousa Sadr, the spiritual leader of Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim community who disappeared during a visit to Tripoli in 1978. Libya claims that Sadr left Tripoli for Italy that year.
Following the scathing Lebanese statements, Libya closed its Beirut embassy and said it was withdrawing from the Arab League. The suggestion drew criticism from some Arab countries, followed by counterattacks from Az-Zahf Al-Akhdar that were interpreted as official Libyan response.
The Revolutionary Committees were set up by Gaddafi as watchdogs for the government but have become increasingly heavy-handed and extremist.
Editor Abdel-Qader al-Hudheiri replaced Mohammed Khalfallah, the paper said, without elaboration. – Sapa-AP