The White House on Tuesday delayed plans to lift US travel restrictions to Libya after the Libyan prime minister denied his country's guilt in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
Washington immediately demanded a retraction of the comments by Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem, who said Tripoli had only agreed to pay compensation to bombing victims in order to "buy peace."
US President George W. Bush had been poised to ease the decades-old travel ban and take other steps on Tuesday to reward Libya for scrapping its nuclear arms programs. But officials said the announcement was put on hold in protest.
US officials said they expected the Libyan government to issue a statement backing away from Ghanem's comments. If it does so, the White House was likely to go forward with plans to lift the travel ban later this week.
"Libya made it very clear in their letter to the United Nations that it accepts responsibility for the actions of its officials on that very matter [Lockerbie]. And I would expect Libya to make clear that that is still their position," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
Susan Cohen, whose daughter was among the Lockerbie victims, said the denial showed Libya had not changed its attitudes.
"I think this is outrageous that the US government stands for this. The United States is supposed to be making Libya accept responsibility and here you have the prime minister denying it. I think the United States is giving Libya a pass just to get Libyan oil," she said.
In the first tangible step toward easing US sanctions, Bush had planned to immediately lift restrictions on the use of US passports for travel to Libya and to allow US citizens to spend money should they visit the North African nation.
Bush was also poised to clear the way for Libyan diplomats to work in Washington. The US has already re-established a diplomatic presence in Tripoli after more than 20 years.
"Libya is making important progress in their efforts to dismantle their WMD programs. ... As they take these important steps, they will be able to realize better relations with the United States," McClellan said.
But the White House has made clear that major US trade sanctions would stay in place, at least for the time being. To keep pressure on Tripoli to cooperate, congressional sources said Bush was likely to only gradually lift the ban on direct trade and US imports of Libyan crude oil.
Easing the sanctions could allow US oil companies to resume activities in Libya, which they had to abandon when expanded US sanctions forced them to pull out in 1986. OPEC member Libya produces around 1.4 million barrels daily.
After years of negotiations, Libya agreed last year to pay US$2.7 billion in compensation for Lockerbie victims, many of whom were Britons and Americans on Pan Am flight 103 when it was blown up over the Scottish town.
Unless Washington drops Libya from its state sponsors of terrorism list and ends its bilateral sanctions by April, Libya is entitled under a compensation deal reached last year to halve the US$10 million payout it has promised relatives of each victim of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing. However, that deadline can be extended if Libya and the relatives agree.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but