Germany believes USA leaked Libya minutes to foil economic plans
Were the Libya minutes leaked by the US?
Welt am Sonntag, 27 May
It is assumed within the Federal Chancellor's Office and the SPD [Social Democratic Party] leadership, according to information received from these sources by Welt am Sonntag, that the minutes of talks between Chancellor Schroeder and US President Bush were deliberately leaked by the American side to thwart German economic interests in Libya.
According to the controversial minutes drafted by German Ambassador Juergen Chrobog, the chancellor's adviser Michael Steiner informed the US leadership at the end of March that Libyan ruler al-Qadhafi had admitted his country's involvement in the terrorist attacks on Berlin's "La Belle" disco and on the PanAm airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Last week's publication of the minutes led to ill-feeling both between Berlin and Washington, and between the Chancellor's Office and the Foreign Ministry.
This latest assumption in Berlin is rooted in the fact that BASF subsidiary Wintershall is seeking to acquire a stake in a state-owned oilfield in Libya, and is presently engaged in a bidding process with Shell, BP and Total Fina. This was also the cause of diplomatic tension during this month's visit by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to Washington, with influential US Senators Jesse Helms (Republican) and Joseph R. Hiden Jr. (Democrat) calling on Fischer to induce BASF's Kassel-based subsidiary to finally stop doing business at America's expense. Otherwise, relations between the Federal Republic and the United States would be seriously damaged.
In Germany, the American threat met with incomprehension. A consortium of American firms did have to withdraw from the Libyan market in 1986 owing to the US sanctions imposed after the attack on Berlin's La Belle disco; since then, their 40 per cent share of Tripoli's controversial oil reserves has been administered through trustees. The current bidding process concerns the remaining 60 per cent share of Libyan state-owned company NOC. "We don't see how we're harming the rights of third parties," Wintershall spokesperson Susanne Ulitzsch told Welt am Sonntag.
Karl Lamers, foreign policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU [Christian Democratic/Social Union] Bundestag group, pointed out that the BASF subsidiary was pursuing a legitimate interest in Libya. But if the impression were now to arise in the United States that Germany was launching a diversionary manoeuvre over the affair of the minutes, then relations would suffer serious further damage. "Anyone doing this sort of thing must name names," stated Lamers, who believed it was out of the question for American sources to have committed such an indiscretion. |
