U.S. Asks For Talks With Libya
By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Eighteen years after breaking diplomatic relations, the United States has asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to arrange face-to-face talks with Libya, U.S. officials said Thursday.
''We're willing to have such a meeting,'' said Peter Burleigh, the deputy U.S. ambassador, explaining that it would likely include Britain and would focus on the steps that Libya must take before U.N. sanctions can be lifted permanently.
Burleigh's request to Annan to arrange talks with Libya's U.N. Ambassador Abuzed Omar Dorda, first reported in The Boston Globe on Thursday, came about two weeks ago.
The U.S. initiative marks a significant change in Washington's attitude toward Libya following its handover Monday of two suspects in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet, which triggered the suspension of U.N. sanctions imposed in 1992.
Nonetheless, the United States still considers Moammar Gadhafi's government a pariah state, suspected of terrorist activities. Washington refused to lift U.S. sanctions after the handover of the two Libyans for trial in the Netherlands under Scottish law, and Libya's U.S. assets remain frozen. Americans are also essentially banned from trading with Libya or traveling there.
Still, Washington's agreement to a meeting, which is expected to take place in the next few weeks, is an important step in ending Libya's isolation. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a resumption of diplomatic relations, which were broken in 1981, would likely be raised at the talks.
Britain also broke diplomatic ties with Libya, in 1984. But Britain's U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said that in recent months he has met frequently with the Libyan ambassador to clarify the U.S.-British offer last August to try the two Libyans in the Netherlands under Scottish law.
So a future meeting including the Americans and the secretary-general, while welcome, is ''no big deal for me,'' Greenstock said, noting that Britain has already offered to resume consular relations with Libya.
The Security Council issued a statement Thursday welcoming the handover of the two Libyans, noting the automatic suspension of sanctions and expressing its ''deep appreciation'' to the governments of South Africa and Saudi Arabia for their help.
Before the council considers lifting sanctions permanently, Annan must report within 90 days on Libya's compliance with other council demands - including Libya's renunciation of terrorism, its cooperation with the trial and its commitment to compensating victims' families if the two men are convicted.
''Those are the issue that have to be addressed in a way that's acceptable to all parties,'' Burleigh said, explaining why face-to-face talks were necessary.
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