Monday August 24, 12:48 pm Eastern Time
U.S. wants oil embargo if Libya witholds suspects
biz.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The United States would press for international oil sanctions on Libya if it failed to hand over two suspects for trial in the Lockerbie airliner bombing case, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.
The official said Washington had always favored a multilateral oil embargo but believed other countries would now be more willing to go along if Tripoli rejected a compromise proposal announced on Monday for the trial of the suspects.
Britain and the United States said earlier they agreed that two Libyans accused of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, could be tried in the Netherlands under Scottish law. They had previously insisted the trial should take place in Britain or the United States.
The U.S. official, briefing reporters on condition he was not identified, said that if Libya turned down this offer, ''we think we are capable of building a much stronger international consensus around further steps that must be taken.''
He said U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking on Monday to relatives of some of the 270 Lockerbie victims, ''made it very clear that she is obviously extremely interested and supportive of moving on, particularly in the direction of oil sanctions''.
The U.S. government has banned American imports of Libyan oil, but has so far been unable to persuade other countries -- some, like Italy, major importers -- to follow suit. Families of the victims have pressed strongly for an oil embargo. |
