The Hindu : U.S. not to lift curbs on Libya now

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 07, 2004

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International

U.S. not to lift curbs on Libya now

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON JAN. 6. The White House has said that the sanctions against Libya will remain but has promised to take "tangible steps" if Tripoli addresses U.S. concerns on weapons of mass destruction.

"Despite the positive developments, the crisis with respect to Libya has not been fully resolved and I have therefore determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared with respect to Libya and maintain in force the comprehensive sanctions against Libya," said the President, George W Bush, in a letter to Congress.

"As Libya takes tangible steps to address those concerns, the U.S. will in turn take reciprocal tangible steps to recognise Libya's progress," he said even while not spelling out the finer details of his plans. The impression is that Washington could be "rolling back" some of the punitive measures but apparently as of now no formal decisions have been made.

The decision has not come as a major surprise even if Libya is pressing for a quick end to the punitive measures in the backdrop of the developments in recent months.

First, the Government of Libya came to an understanding with the families of the 1998 Lockerbie bombing victims; and secondly, in a major announcement last month, it said that it was abandoning its programmes of weapons of mass destruction and allowing unconditional inspections.

Mr. Bush praised this move as being `important' and said that Libya stood to gain through better relations with the U.S. if the commitments were kept.

The lifting of sanctions would pave the way for American oil companies to resume their business activities in Libya which they were forced to give up in the mid 1980s as a result of expanded and comprehensive sanctions.

But the Bush administration has been quite careful in how it is going to address the developments over the last several months.

Washington, for instance, has been maintaining that it is not bound by the agreement between Libya and the families of the Lockerbie bombing; and has said that sanctions will be taken off only at the appropriate time. According to the terms of the agreement, Libya has kept in an escrow account $2.7 billions to be paid out to the 270 families of the victims in a phased manner.

Mr. Bush has said that Libya's statements on the weapons of mass destruction signalled the beginning of a process of rejoining the comity of nations, but that this would have to be followed up with a verification mechanism.

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