Officials: U.S. may lift Libya sanctions soon
From Elise Labott
CNN Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States is poised to lift sanctions against Libya in the coming days in response to the country's progress in dismantling its weapons of mass destruction program, State Department officials said Tuesday.
A final decision by President Bush is expected soon. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher noted Tuesday that Bush has pledged to reciprocate for Libya's decision to disarm.
Last month, Assistant Secretary of State William Burns traveled to Tripoli, where he met with Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi. Boucher said Burns passed a message from Bush "confirming the excellent progress that Libya has made," and how it would improve the bilateral relationship.
Burns also discussed the possibility of improving trade and investment ties. "We have been looking at potential measures to normalize trade and investment," he said.
The United States has already expanded its diplomatic presence in Tripoli, and Libya is expected to send diplomats to Washington shortly. A 23-year U.S. travel ban was lifted in February.
Libya has been moving toward normal relations with the West since last year, when it accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The country agreed to pay $2.7 billion in compensation, $10 million to the family of each of the 270 victims.
The normalization accelerated in December, when Gadhafi halted his weapons of mass destruction programs and allowed U.N. inspectors into the country. Libya's cooperation helped uncover a network of nuclear proliferation that led back to Pakistan's top nuclear scientist.
Under the Lockerbie agreement, the families received the first installment of $4 million after the U.N. Security Council lifted sanctions in September. The next payment, $4 million per family, will be paid when the U.S. lifts sanctions. Libya has agreed to a three-month extension of the April 24 deadline for that to occur.
The final payment of $2 million per family will be paid when the U.S. removes Libya from its list of terror-sponsoring states, which U.S. officials say would be premature.
Boucher said that last year "Libya held to its practice in recent years of curtailing support for international terrorism," but that Tripoli continues to "maintain contact with some past terrorist clients."
The United States imposed travel and other restrictions on Libya in the early 1980s and added broad sanctions in 1986 after Libya was blamed for the bombing of a Berlin disco that killed two U.S. servicemen and a Turkish woman, and wounded 229, including 79 Americans.
The sanctions were further expanded in the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, which cited Libya's failure to comply with U.N. resolutions, support of terrorism and efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
