http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051500457.html?referrer=email&referrer=email
U.S. Restores Full Diplomatic Ties With Libya Move Sends a Signal To Iran, North Korea By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 16, 2006; Page A01 The United States restored full diplomatic relations with Libya yesterday, marking the end of a quarter-century of enmity and signaling to Iran and North Korea that similar rewards await countries that scrap their weapons of mass destruction. Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi agreed to end his nation's nascent chemical and nuclear weapons programs in late 2003, capping years of talks between Tripoli and Washington over how Libya could end two decades of international isolation. Libya also took responsibility that year for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay as much as $10 million to the family of each of the 270 dead. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would reopen its embassy, shuttered after a mob set fire to it in 1979, and remove Libya from the list of state sponsors of terrorism within 45 days. "Just as 2003 marked a turning point for the Libyan people, so too could 2006 mark turning points for the peoples of Iran and North Korea," Rice said, calling Libya "an important model" for resolving the disputes with Tehran and Pyongyang. Unlike with Libya, however, the Bush administration thus far has refused to engage in direct talks with Iran or to meet with North Korean officials outside of a six-nation negotiating process. The talks with Libya began during the Clinton administration and included a plan that outlined exactly what Libya could expect as it fulfilled U.S. demands. "Some say it is supposed to send a message to the Iranians," said Edward Walker Jr., president of the Middle East Institute and a former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs under Bill Clinton. "As far as I can see, the message is that it worked because they had direct talks with the Libyans." But a senior U.S. official said direct talks with Libya did not begin until Libya met certain identified thresholds, such as turning over two intelligence officers implicated in the Pan Am attack for trial. Britain, France and Germany have taken the lead in negotiating with Iran, to little avail. Until now, the administration's inability to quickly restore relations with Libya had frustrated European diplomats, who felt that it sent a negative signal to Iran about the value of cooperating on its nuclear programs. In what State Department officials said was a coincidence, the announcement came as European foreign ministers met in Brussels to put together new incentives for Iran to end its uranium enrichment activities. "We think this could be helpful on Iran," a European diplomat said. U.S. officials said the key reason for announcing the decision yesterday was because it was the deadline for certifying that Libya does not belong on a list of countries that do not fully cooperate with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts. Henry Crumpton, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator, said Libyan cooperation had greatly improved. "They have made direct and important contributions to our national security," he said. Families of the Pan Am 103 victims offered mixed reactions to the announcement. Bob Monetti, who lost his 20-year-old son aboard the flight, said the United States could not afford to invade every country with illicit weapons, so it was important to send a message. "Libya stopped," he said. "We needed to reward them." But Dan Cohen, who with wife Susan rejected Libya's $10 million offer in the death of their daughter, said the decision was "cynical, fraudulent, terrible and makes me sick." He said the administration was exaggerating the extent of Libya's nuclear programs for political purposes, saying that "the stuff they bought was still in cartons." Libya has paid $8 million to the family of each victim, but $2 million in additional compensation would have been paid if it had been removed from the terrorism list by a certain date, which has now elapsed. A statement from a group of victims' families called on Libya to "keep its promise." The final step in the rebuilding of U.S.-Libya ties would be a visit by Rice to Tripoli. But U.S. officials indicated that a key factor in whether she goes would be resolution of a case involving five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of deliberately infecting hundreds of children at a Libyan hospital with the virus that causes AIDS. They have been detained since 1999, and Rice called for their release while visiting Bulgaria last month. The U.S.-Libya rapprochement had been delayed at one point because of allegations that Gaddafi had ordered the assassination of then-Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who is now the king. But Libya and Saudi Arabia reestablished diplomatic relations last fall, permitting the United States to say the issue was closed. Martin Indyk, who helped begin the U.S.-Libya talks in 1999 while in the Clinton administration, said the ending of the Libya-Saudi dispute was a "mystery of the Arab world, one of the Arabian nights." Indyk, now director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, noted that Abdullah had played a critical role in fostering the U.S.-Libya dialogue, so Gaddafi was in his debt. "Trying to assassinate him was completely weird," he said. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Home is just a click away. Make Yahoo! your home page now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/DHchtC/3FxNAA/yQLSAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> 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/
