Libya would pay hundreds of millions of dollars to compensate US victims of terrorism under a tentative agreement that hinges on action by the US Congress, sources familiar with the accord said on Wednesday.
The US and Libya worked out the tentative deal to resolve all outstanding cases of what Washington regards as past Libyan terrorist acts that killed or injured Americans.
If carried out, the deal could end the legal liability to Libya stemming from multiple lawsuits by families of the US victims and it could herald a further warming in ties between Tripoli and Washington.
Relations between the two nations have dramatically improved since Libya’s 2003 decision to abandon its pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Under the deal, Libya would set aside US$536 million to pay the remaining claims from the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and US$283 million to compensate those killed and injured in the bombing of a West Berlin disco in 1986, said attorney Jim Kreindler, whose law firm represents 130 Lockerbie victims.
Two-hundred-and-seventy people died when a bomb destroyed a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. The Berlin disco bomb killed three and injured 229.
The deal would also set aside additional funds to compensate victims of other incidents blamed on Libya, possibly bringing the total payout to more than US$1 billion.
To implement the tentative agreement, however, Congress would have to relieve Libya of the effects of a law enacted this year making it easier for terrorism victims to collect damages by having the assets of target governments frozen.
“It’s not locked in,” a senior US official said of the tentative agreement. “Congressional action would help us enormously to make sure it happens.”
Meanwhile, the release of two Swiss nationals in Libya may herald an end to a 15-day crisis between the two countries sparked by the arrest of Muammar Qaddafi’s son, a Swiss ministry official said on Wednesday.
“This would seem to be the end of the crisis ... [but] the situation is ongoing,” a spokesman for the Swiss ministry of foreign affairs said.
But it was still too early to say if bilateral relations were back on track, he said.
The Swiss pair were freed late on Tuesday on bail and are now in the care of the Swiss embassy in Tripoli, according to the embassy, although they do not have permission to leave Libya.
The two had been detained in the wake of the July 15 arrest of Hannibal Qaddafi, son of Libyan leader Muammer, on suspicion of assaulting hotel staff. His wife was also detained.
The Qaddafis, who have denied the allegations, were released on bail two days after they were detained, as Libya began a string of retaliatory measures.
Tripoli announced it was suspending oil shipments to Switzerland, stopped issuing visas to Swiss nationals, and shut the offices of two Swiss companies, food giant Nestle and engineering group ABB, in the Libyan capital.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
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
RSS