Senator Richard Lugar: U.S., Libya Working to Open Embassy

U.S. and Libyan officials are working toward opening an American Embassy in Tripoli and ending Libya's designation as a terrorist-sponsoring country, Senator Richard Lugar said on August 20.

Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Libya, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said U.S.-Libyan officials were taking steps to make sure that Libya was no longer involved in terrorism with the aim of removing the country from the State Department's list of countries supporting terrorism. Lugar, Republican-Indiana, said he had spoken with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and raised issues of terrorism, human rights in Libya, and economic cooperation with the country that the world used to regard as a rogue state. Lugar said he could not predict when the United States would reopen an embassy in Tripoli, but that he had talked with Libyans about working toward that goal.

Gadhafi also invited President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza to visit Libya, said Lugar, adding he would pass on the offer to the White House. "I conveyed to the Libyan leader the very best wishes of our president and he likewise conveyed and would like to have the visit of the secretary Rice and the visit of our president and I will convey those words back to George W. Bush Lugar said.

In June 2004, the United States opened a liaison office in Tripoli, 24 years after Washington closed its embassy in Libya. 2004, the United States took steps toward normalizing trade and investment with Libya, allowing the import of Libyan oil. The moves followed 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.
Libya wants Washington to abolish U.S. sanctions, in place since 1986, that are estimated to have cost the country more than $30 billion in lost business. The removal of the sanctions is expected to accelerate U.S. investment in Libya's oil industry, the country's main source of revenue.

Source: AP

Jailed Libyan Net writer Abd al-Raziq al-Mansuri

Libya should release journalist and Net writer 'Abd al-Raziq al-Mansuri and drop the charges against him, or grant him a prompt and fair trial, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on August 17.

The country’s internal security force has detained al-Mansuri since last January “in an apparent effort to silence a writer with critical views,” says the Reuters Foundation.

Al-Mansuri, 52, was arrested on January 12, 2005 in his hometown of Tobruk. He'd written some 50 articles and commentaries critical of Libyan society and government for a UK-based website which reported last week that he'd fallen from his prison bed and broken his hip.

The libyan government claims it arrested al-Mansuri for illegal possession of a handgun, says Reuters, but, “he was apparently detained before the handgun was found, by agents of the Internal Security Agency, which normally deals with issues of national security. The authorities are holding him in Abu Selim prison, run by the agency. For at least the first four months of his detention, the authorities held him in incommunicado detention, without access to a lawyer or his family.”

Al-Mansuri's last article before his arrest, "Will the Key-Holder Come Soon to That Hall in Sirte?," posted on January 10, "was a subtle critique of a debate between two government officials, a reformer and a hardliner, expressing hope, but doubt that Libya's leader, Muammar Qaddafi, would support the former," says Reuters.

Read the English and Arabic versions here.
"We call on the prison authorities to ensure that Al Mansouri's injuries are properly treated as soon as possible and we also demand that his lawyer and family be allowed to visit him in order to verify his state of health," says Reporters Without Borders, adding: “As a result of being left untreated for so long after the fall and the poor medical care available in the prison, Al Mansouri's state of health has deteriorated considerably in the past week. He now has complications that could be life-threatening if not quickly treated.”

Syrian Finance Minister al-Hussini in Libya

The Syrian Finance Minister, Mohammed al-Hussini arrived Monday evening in Libya to take part in the general meetings of the Arab Union for Transportations and Works companies.

He was met by the Secretary of the General People's Committee for Finance. In a statement to reporters, the Syrian minister expressed his delight to visit Libya, saying that his visit is to attend the general meetings of the Arab Union Companies for Transportations and Works. He pointed out that his visit would be an opportunity to discuss prospects of developing relations in financial and banking fields between the two countries.

Source: JANA

Libya, Tunis to develop cooperation

The Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation Abdelrahman Shalgam met Wednesday morning in the Tunisian capital with the Under-Secretary of State for the Arab African Affairs at the Tunisian Foreign Ministry, Salah Adeen al-Jamali.

The meeting discussed the visit of the Secretary of the GPCFLIC and the Secretary-General of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) to Mauritania, and the meeting with the Chairman of the Mauritanian military council, and the arrangements took by the military council to realize the stability in Mauritania and the importance that AMU play an important role in support of the Mauritanian people.Bilateral relations between the Great Jamahiriya and Tunisia and activation of the joint committees to develop this cooperation, were discussed in the meeting.

Source: JANA