finally libya and usa are returning back to normal relationship…well spanking of saddam’s ass produced some good results too…qaddafi learnt the lesson and decided to cooperate with the international atomic energy agency…and finally Libya is returning back to the international world…i happened to live in libya for almost 6 years and i can tell you how isolated those people were…
Bush lifts Libya trade sanctions
The Libyan leader has been applauded for giving up his WMD programme
US President George Bush has lifted his country’s trade embargo on Libya as a reward for Tripoli’s decision to give up weapons of mass destruction.
Most of the sanctions were suspended in April, when Libya announced it was abandoning its weapons programme.
Libya is now expected to pay more than $1bn in compensation to the families of the victims of the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988.
However, the US is keeping several terrorism-related sanctions in place.
Libya, which has acknowledged responsibility for the bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland, had threatened to cancel compensation payments if the sanctions had not been lifted by Wednesday.
International concern
President Bush formally revoked all remaining trade sanctions, which affected general trade, aviation and the importing of Libyan oil.
A freeze on Libyan assets in the United States has also been lifted.
“This step is taken in response to actions that Libya has taken over the past nine months to address concerns by the international community about its weapons of mass destruction programs,” US State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said, the AFP news agency reported.
The sanctions were first imposed by the then US President Ronald Reagan in 1986 in retaliation for what the US saw as Libyan support for terrorist groups.
Mr Ereli said Libya remained on Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism, and was subject to relevant sanctions.
“I would also note that our diplomatic representation in Libya is that of a liaison office. We certainly don’t have full diplomatic representation there,” he said.
Compensation
The move from the White House is largely symbolic as the US had suspended the sanctions against Libya earlier this year, says the BBC’s Rob Watson in Washington.
But the decision to make the lifting of sanctions permanent appears to reflect confidence in Washington that Libya is sticking to its promise to dismantle any weapons of mass destruction programmes, our correspondent says.
All 259 people aboard the Pan Am flight were killed, including 189 Americans. A further 11 people were killed on the ground in Lockerbie.
The families of the Pan Am victims are now expected to receive $4m each.
The families had received a similar payment of $4m each after United Nations sanctions against Libya were lifted last year.
If Libya is removed from the terrorism list, a final payment of $2m per family would be made, bringing the total to $10m each.