http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5E2D58C5-D4FF-4851-B9E0-9FD990C021E2. htm Al-Qadhafi's son: US to open embassy Monday 22 August 2005, 19:15 Makka Time, 16:15 GMT
The son of the Libyan leader Muammar al-Qadhafi has said the US will open open an embassy in Tripoli within days and that Libya will be removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism by year's end. Saif al-Islam al-Qadhafi, who runs the Qadhafi International Association for Charitable Organisations and who has assumed an increasingly prominent international role, said on Monday that Libya would also soon open its embassy in the American capital. "The Libyan and American flags will be raised in Tripoli and Washington within the coming days," he said. There was no immediate confirmation from the US State Department. Relations improving Al-Qadhafi said American and Libyan officials were negotiating the embassy reopening in the Libyan capital and removal of the Libyan government from the list of countries sponsoring terrorist acts. He was speaking a day after visiting Senator Richard Lugar, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Libya has been on the State Department-compiled list since 1979. The younger al-Qadhafi said he hoped to visit the United States and exhibit his art work there. He currently has exhibitions in a number of countries in Europe and the Middle East. Relations between Washington and Tripoli, strained since the senior al-Qadhafi came to power in a military coup in 1969, have steadily improved over the last year. Sanctions In June 2004, the United States opened a liaison office in Tripoli, 24 years after Washington closed its embassy in the North African country. Last year, the United States took steps towards normalising trade and investment relations with Libya, including the import of Libyan oil. Better relations were based largely on the Libyan leader's decision to give up the pursuit of nuclear weapons and financial settlements with the families of the victims of the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people - most of them Americans - died. Libya wants Washington to remove sanctions, in place since 1986, that are estimated to have cost the country more than $30 billion in lost business. The removal of the sanctions is expected to accelerate US investment in Libya's oil industry, the country's main source of revenue. Saudi ties In another sign of an improved image for Tripoli, the newly invested King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia pardoned Libyans earlier this month for their alleged involvement in a plot to assassinate him when he was crown prince. On that matter, the younger al-Qadhafi said: "We consider that this page has been closed. "We shouldn't dig up the past. We look forward to the resumption of relations [with Saudi Arabia] soon." Agencies ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h9ptnfr/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1124815179/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
