I was skeptical when you posted this, but it looks like
they might be working on something. Hmmmm..... I wonder if
GW has some compromising pictures of Muammar? <gg>.......
Israeli Officials Report Secret Meeting With Libyans
By JAMES BENNET
Published: January 7, 2004
ERUSALEM, Jan. 7 — Israeli and Libyan officials held a secret meeting in December and discussed the possibility of ties between the longstanding enemies, Israeli officials said today.
The officials cautioned that the contacts were tentative and played down the chances of any formal relationship.
The Libyan foreign ministry denied that any meeting had taken place, according to the official Libyan news agency, JANA, the Associated Press reported.
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, is trying to end his country's diplomatic isolation. Last month, he announced that Libya would abandon plans to build unconventional weapons, and he permitted international inspectors into weapons sites.
The Israeli-Libyan contacts were widely reported in the Israeli news media today, and some Israeli officials expressed concern that the leaks and publicity would kill any chance for diplomacy.
A senior official in the Foreign Ministry confirmed that about two weeks ago, Ron Prosor, a senior aide to the foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, met with Libyan representatives in a European city.
"It's maybe the first step on a road of a thousand miles," the official said. "It's not even the first mile." But, he said, "A kind of opening may be there."
He said that any progress would depend partly on whether Libya's actions on unconventional weapons meet with the approval of the Bush administration.
Two Israeli members of Parliament met last summer at an international conference with Colonel Qaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi. The lawmakers were Ilan Shalgi, a member of the Shinui Party, which is part of the governing coalition, and Ephraim Sneh, a member of Parliament from the opposition Labor Party.
Mr. Sneh predicted that Colonel Qaddafi might go as far as establishing ties to Israel.
"My impression is that Qaddafi has made a strategic decision and he is not a man who takes small steps," Mr. Sneh told Israel Radio. "He will not stop midway and could even go as far as forging ties with Israel."
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has recently suggested renewing peace talks with Israel. Israeli officials have questioned his sincerity, saying that Syria continues to sponsor Hezbollah, the anti-Israel guerrilla group based in Lebanon.
Mark Heller, an analyst at the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, said of the contacts with Libya, "Most of it is media hype."
But he added that several governments in the region wanted to persuade the Bush administration of their interest in peace. "There is something significant going on, which is that a lot of governments or rulers understand that they ought to be a little more serious about Uncle Sam," he said.
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aronoth reported today that the Libyan representatives told Mr. Prosor that Libya would have little trouble recognizing Israel if it reached a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Talks between the adversaries here are all but frozen. Overnight, Israeli forces killed three Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank, two in Nablus and one in Tulkarm.
The Israeli army said that soldiers on a mission to arrest wanted men in Nablus fatally shot one man who drew a pistol and another man who was hiding in some bushes and ignored calls to surrender and warning shots. That man proved to be unarmed, the army said.
Palestinians in Nablus said the second man was heard yelling repeatedly, "I don't know" before he was killed.
Both men were members of the Al Awdeh Brigades, a militant group connected to the mainstream Fatah faction, Palestinians in Nablus said.
In the second case, an army spokesman said, Palestinian gunmen in Tulkarm fired on soldiers on an arrest raid, who returned fire. The soldiers killed a militant from the Islamist group Hamas. In a statement, Hamas called the killing "a planned assassination."
As in many West Bank cities, Israeli forces have been regularly patrolling the streets of Tulkarm and Nablus, pursuing accused terrorists and imposing restrictions on the populations, since spring 2002. The present, large-scale operation in Nablus began in mid-December.
"Nablus is the hottest and most dangerous town," the Israeli commander in Nablus told reporters on Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "Most of the suicide bombers, most of the bombs, most of the ammunition, is in Nablus."
He said the threat of violence, rather than the Israeli army, was responsible for any suffering there. "When there are a lot of alerts, the people of Nablus suffer more," he said. "When there are fewer alerts, the people of Nablus suffer less."
nytimes.com |
