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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 March - 5 April 2000 Issue No. 475
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Focus Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Slow thaw
By Rasha SaadA group of US officials made a two-day visit to Libya this week for the first time since diplomatic relations were severed between the two countries in 1981. The State Department said that the goal of the visit was to assess security conditions in Libya and, accordingly, recommend whether it should lift its travel ban for US citizens.
The four-member US team, made up of two consular staff and two US diplomatic security service staff, arrived in Tripoli on Saturday and left on Sunday after checking security at the airport, hotels and hospitals. They also met with foreign diplomats in Tripoli and Libyan officials.
US officials, however, downplayed the significance of the visit. Though admitting that Libya had taken important steps to reduce its alleged support for terrorism, US assistant secretary of state for near Eastern affairs, Edward Walker, said the decision to send diplomats to Libya is "strictly a consular matter" and "is not a move to take Libya off the terrorist list."
Diplomatic ties between the two countries were severed 19 years ago following US allegations that Libya was involved in supporting terrorist groups. In 1986, the US froze Libya's assets and imposed a trade embargo on it. In the same year, former US President Ronald Reagan ordered US aircraft to bomb several targets in Tripoli and Benghazi, including the residence of Libya's revolutionary leader Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli. Fourty civilians, including Gaddafi's adopted daughter were killed in the US bombing. Reagan claimed Tripoli was behind the bombing of a West Berlin discotheque frequented by American servicemen, a charge which was later proved false.
Relations with Washington only got worse after the US accused Libya of bombing PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 270 people. The United States pushed the Security Council in April 1992 to impose an air and arms embargo on Tripoli. Following a South African-Saudi initiative and efforts by African and Arab leaders, UN sanctions were suspended a year ago after Libya agreed to hand over for trial in the Netherlands two Libyans whom the US named as suspects in the PanAm bombing.
Despite the fact that the suspension of sanctions led to the resumption of relations between Libya and several European countries, including America's closest ally, Britain, no high-level official contacts took place between Washington and Tripoli.
Nevertheless, there were signs that the United States was examining the possibility or reopening dialogue with Gaddafi who topped Washington's list of most reviled leaders for decades. Former US State Department Deputy Secretary Herman Cohen made an informal visit to Tripoli last year, and US officials took part in a meeting with Libyan diplomats, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and British diplomats, following their hand over of the two Libyan suspects in April last year.
Libya, meanwhile, welcomed the low-level visit by the US diplomats. According to Hassan Chaouch, deputy minister for foreign affairs and international cooperation, the visit shows that a "negative chapter in relations is over," and "it is possible to build on [the visit] for a resumption of relations between Libya and America."
The visit of the US officials also coincided with a report in the London-based Saudi daily, Asharq Al-Awsat, quoting Libyan sources as saying that more members of the radical Palestinian group, the Revolutionary Fateh led by Abu Nidal, were deported from Tripoli.
Whether true or not, the report reflected Gaddafi's new policy of distancing himself from radical organisations. His relations with such groups led the US to accuse Tripoli of sponsoring terrorism. Meanwhile, news reports in the United States also noted that members of the US administration appreciated Gaddafi's recent effort to broker peaceful settlements for several conflicts in the African continent, particularly the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Chaouch denied that Libya supported terrorism. "All we did was to help freedom fighters in Africa and the Middle East whose leaders were later received in the White House," he said referring to former South African President Nelson Mandela and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
However, according to analysts, the economic dimension was one of the main reasons for the recent US change of heart towards Libya.
Since the suspension of UN sanctions, Libya has moved fast towards trying to entice more foreign investment in its oil sector. In return, European businessmen have poured into Libya and European oil firms forged ahead in Libyan energy ventures leaving US companies in the cold. US groups that lobby for the lifting of American sanctions on Libya are reported to be eager to compete with their European counterparts. According to this theory, analysts believe that Congress will soon lighten unilateral sanctions and cancel the legislation that penalises foreign companies making new investments of more than $40 million a year in Libya's oil sector.
