Libya and the US settled all outstanding lawsuits by US victims of terrorism yesterday, clearing the way for the full restoration of diplomatic relations.
The top US diplomat for the Middle East, David Welch, signed the deal with Ahmed al-Fatouri, head of the Libyan foreign ministry US affairs department in a ceremony before reporters and members of both delegations.
There were 26 pending lawsuits filed by US citizens against Libya for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, and other attacks, said a senior Libyan government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He said there were also three outstanding lawsuits filed by Libyan citizens, including for US air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 that reportedly killed 41 people, including Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s adopted daughter.
The agreement paves the way for a full restoration of relations, including the opening of a US embassy in Tripoli, the confirmation of an ambassador, direct US aid and a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice before the end of the year.
It also gives the Libyan government immunity from any further terror-related lawsuits, the government official said.
Thursday’s signing completes a nearly five-year effort to rebuild ties between the two countries.
The US had no diplomatic relations with Libya from 1980 until late 2003, when leader Qaddafi pledged to abandon his weapons of mass destruction programs, stop exporting terrorism and compensate the families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing and other attacks.
After that, the country that was once a global pariah was given a reprieve from UN, US and European sanctions and allowed a seat on the UN Security Council.
WAKE-UP CALL: Firms in the private sector were not taking basic precautions, despite the cyberthreats from China and Russia, a US cybersecurity official said A ninth US telecom firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and telephone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said on Friday. Officials from the administration of US President Joe Biden this month said that at least eight telecommunications companies, as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon. US Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger on Friday told reporters that a ninth victim
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
MISSING: Prosecutors urged the company to move workers out of poor living conditions to hotels, but residents said many workers had already left the town Brazil has stopped issuing temporary work visas for BYD, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, in the wake of accusations that some workers at a site owned by the Chinese electric vehicle producer had been victims of human trafficking. The announcement came days after labor authorities said they found 163 Chinese workers who had been brought to Brazil irregularly in “slavery-like” conditions at the BYD factory construction site in the northeastern state of Bahia. The workers were employed by contractor Jinjiang Group, which has denied any wrongdoing. Later, the authorities also said the workers were victims of human trafficking,
RSS