Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Libya on 17th September 2005 that the United States was committed to closer ties, but she stopped short of promising the diplomatic recognition long sought by Tripoli.
Rice met with her Libyan counterpart on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting, nearly a month after the Bush administration suggested Tripoli could expect diplomatic recognition if it cleaned up its record on human rights and terrorism.
She "reaffirmed the US commitment to working to broaden and deepen the relationship between Libya and the US," according to a statement. But she also stressed the need for more progress on democratic and human rights reforms, a spokesman said.
"Good faith actions on their part will in return get good faith actions from the United States and we’ve seen that progression over the past year or so," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Libya’s Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shalgam reiterated his country’s promise to continue its help in the fight against terror and to renounce violence targeting civilians regardless of their views.
In March 2005, the US administration notified Congress it planned to establish full relations with the once outcast government by the end of the year, despite suspicions in Saudi Arabia that Libyan agents plotted to try to assassinate then-Crown Prince Abdullah in late 2003.
"We’re not to that point yet," McCormack said, adding issues still needed to be resolved, such as Libya’s inclusion on a State Department list of countries that sponsor terror. Rice and Shalgam also discussed reform issues, human rights and cooperation in the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. She thanked Tripoli for working to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Sudanese region of Darfur and for its cooperation in the fight against terror.
Rice said that "as Libya continued this course, it would regain a secure and respected place among the nations of the world," according to the statement.
Diplomatic relations were severed in 1980 and US economic sanctions remain in place, costing Libya an estimated $30 million (Ð24.5 million) a year in lost business.
In June 2004, the United States opened a liaison office in Tripoli and it took steps last year toward normalizing trade and investment with Libya, allowing the import of Libyan oil.
The moves followed Muammar el Gadhafi’s decision in 2003 to pay compensation for the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, which killed 270 people. The same year Libya agreed to dismantle its programs for weapons of mass destruction and allow U.N., American and British inspectors to visit the facilities.
Source: AP
