U.S. renews diplomatic ties with Libya despite reports of assassination plot
BARRY SCHWEID, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, June 28, 2004 (AP) — The United States resumed direct diplomatic ties with Libya today after a 24-year break, even as the Bush administration pursued reports that Moammar Gadhafi had taken part in a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s crown prince.
The announcement was made in Tripoli by Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns, after talks with Gadhafi, and also at the State Department.
Burns inaugurated a new U.S. liaison office in Tripoli in what was the latest move by the Bush administration to reciprocate for Gadhafi’s promise last December to dismantle his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.
Burns said that he and J. Cofer Black, who heads the State Department’s office to counter terrorism, had discussed with Gadhafi “recent public allegations regarding Libya and Saudi Arabia.”
At the State Department, spokesperson Adam Ereli said, “I think we made clear our concerns about the story” concerning an alleged plot against Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
Burns said the two sides “held detailed discussions on Libya’s commitment to support the global war on terrorism, to repudiate the use of violence for political purposes and to implement its pledge to cease all support for terrorism.”
Libya is one of seven nations annually branded as sponsors of terror by the department.
Burns, who is the senior department official dealing with the Middle East, gave no indication in his statement what Gadhafi may have said about the plot reports.
On other subjects, though, Burns said the U.S. delegation expressed appreciation for Libya’s humanitarian assistance to civil war victims in Darfur, Sudan, and recalled its decision to accept responsibility for the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 that killed 270 people.
Libya agreed to pay $2.7 billion (U.S.) to the victims’ families.
President Bush, speaking with reporters this month after the G-8 summit in Georgia, said U.S. investigators were looking into reports of the plot against the Saudi crown prince.
“When we find out the facts, we will deal with them accordingly,” Bush said. “I have sent a message to him (Gadhafi) that if he honours his commitments to resist terror and to fully disclose and disarm his weapons programs, we will begin a process of normalization, which we have done. We will make sure he honours his commitment.”
State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said Libya had given repeated assurances not to use violence to settle political disputes after the United States received reports last year of Libyan contacts with Saudi dissidents threatening the Saudi royal family.
Allegations of a plot against Abdullah were mentioned separately by Abduraham Alamoudi, an American Muslim leader jailed in Alexandria, Va., on federal charges of having illegal financial dealings with Libya, and by Col. Mohamed Ismael, a Libyan intelligence officer currently in Saudi custody.
Abdullah is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in the absence of King Fahd, who is gravely ill.
Ereli said today that if the reports proved true, “it would call into question continued development of relations with Libya.” The United States and Libya have been reconciling at a fast pace since Gadhafi agreed last December to dismantle his programs to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Asked what Gadhafi had told the two U.S. officials about the plot reports, Ereli said, “I don’t have that level of detail. … We do not have enough to make a conclusive judgment, I think, one way or the other.”
Relations with Libya took a sudden lurch forward after Gadhafi started shipping parts of his weapons program to the United States. The Bush administration promoted that action as evidence of a success for U.S. foreign policy.
Bush moved in April to restore normal trade and investment ties with Libya, including the import of Libyan oil. However, Libya was not removed from the State Department’s terrorism list.