Libya spreads its wings
Europe has moved faster than the US in restoring commercial and diplomatic relations with Libya, and the Libyans are now pressing the Europeans to lobby on their behalf with Washington, Gamal Nkrumah reports
Last week witnessed further shifts in the transformation of Libyan foreign policy. Following closely on the heels of visiting United States congressmen, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi made a much-publicised trip to Libya on Tuesday, where he delivered a special message from United States President George W Bush to the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The exact content of the message was not made public, but observers concur that it dealt with ways of improving relations between Libya and the US. Libya, long listed by the US State Department as a sponsor of international terrorism, is keen to restore full diplomatic and commercial links with the US. The US has reacted more cautiously to Libya's overtures, but has hinted that it might soon lift a ban on travel to Libya by US citizens.
The first visit by a Western leader to Libya since the North African country announced plans to abandon its programme of producing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was described in Italy's daily Repubblica as a "resounding success and a milestone in relations" between Italy and its former North African colony.
Italy, which colonised Libya from 1911 to 1943, is today Libya's most important trading partner. Libya is the most important oil supplier for Italy, which in turn is Libya's main source of manufactured and consumer goods.
Even more tangible evidence of the Libyan opening to the West came as Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam met with his British counterpart Jack Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Libya is in the process of dismantling its nuclear programme and has already shipped parts of its nuclear facilities to the US for storage and conversion. Straw lauded Libya's decision as a "courageous step", while Blair praised Libya's decision to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to the families of victims of the 1988 bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 -- mainly British and American nationals. Libya officially refuses to take responsibility for the Lockerbie disaster.
Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Libya in 1984 over the shooting of British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London, but relations between the two countries were partially restored in 1999. Britain has been at the forefront of the current move to end Libya's ostracism from the Western world and is providing logistical and technical expertise in dismantling Libya's WMD programme.
The motives for British interest in Libya are blatantly commercial. Libya has bountiful oil supplies; Britain has advanced industrial and technological capabilities -- a perfect match. Britain has also pledged to help Libya implement economic reform and a privatisation programme.
Libya has urged its newfound European friends -- the British and the Italians -- to intercede on its behalf with Washington. Libya believes that US intelligence was perfectly aware of the Libyan quest to acquire WMD. "The Americans knew everything," Seif Al- Islam Al-Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's son and heir apparent, told the French daily Le Monde last Wednesday. "Our contribution to their knowledge on the issue is zero. They had penetrated all the networks long before," he added.
Seif Al-Islam said that Libya realises that the upcoming US presidential election might force US President George W Bush to move more slowly on restoring full bilateral relations between Washington and Tripoli. "We understand his pre-election concerns, his problems with public opinion, Congress and the media."
The warm reception Shalqam received in London raised some eyebrows in African and Arab capitals, especially from those who would like to see Western powers treat the leaders of other developing countries with the same attention.
"It is unusual for foreign ministers of small Third World, especially African, states to be received so warmly. Even some of our heads of state struggle hard to get a few minutes for a photo opportunity in front of the Downing Street fireplace before they get hustled off to some junior foreign office minister," Tajudeen Abdurraheem, secretary-general of the Kampala-based Global Pan-African Movement, told Al-Ahram Weekly.
"But Libya is not and has never been just another Third World country," Abdurraheem added. "Its oil resources gave it choices that were not readily available to many poorer nations. The confrontation with the West became the defining character of the regime."
Abdurraheem, a frequent visitor to Libya, added that by the 1990s the North African country had emerged as a Mecca for African and Third World anti-imperialist activists, revolutionaries and anti-globalisation campaigners. He noted that a combination of domestic, regional and international factors had recently led to a change in the Libyan regime's posturing.
For its part, Libya has toned down its anti- imperialist rhetoric. Proclamations of pan- Arab solidarity and lambasting of American imperialism are no longer tolerated in the state-controlled media. "Libya is responding pragmatically," Abdurraheem explained. "I am not sure how it will play out in the end. But my guess is that Gaddafi has opened a window he can no longer close."
