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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 February 1999 Issue No. 417 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 February 1999 Issue No. 417
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters An end to sanctions?
The time, it seems, has come for the final episode of the Lockerbie saga to be played out. If all goes as scheduled, Tripoli should soon be handing over the two Libyans suspected of involvement in the bombing of the Pan-Am airliner. The UN Security Council will immediately respond by lifting all sanctions imposed against Libya.Closing the Lockerbie file should allow the Arab world to begin to deal with the sanctions fatigue that has taken such a toll on its moral resources.
Whether the file is closed or not depends now chiefly on the US. If Washington does green-light a deal between Libya and the UN, this would be a clear signal that, at the very least, it is prepared to give the Libyan regime an easier time domestically, and within the region.
However, the case of the Iraqi regime is a completely different story -- and one in which nobody seems to have the least idea what the US administration's motives really are.
So, while a settlement for the Lockerbie issue should not necessarily be read as inaugurating a new American approach to the Arab world in general, it could certainly be read as an indication that the US is beginning to realise that sanctions have actually harmed its interests in the region. This argument is beginning to gather support within certain US decision-making quarters.
This is precisely the case that Egypt has been arguing for a long time. Sanctions do not harm the rulers -- but they do make the people, especially the poorest amongst them, suffer immeasurably. The result is to foster stronger anti-US sentiments across the Arab world.
The Arabs still fail to understand why Washington and its allies are so happy to prolong the brutal sanctions against Iraq, yet hardly care to lift a finger against Serbia, whose actions have repeatedly insulted the international community's pretentions to moral and legal authority -- let alone against Israel, which seems to be free to accumulate violation upon violation, only to be forgiven by the US at every turn.
