TRIPOLI, 4 September 2003 — Libya closed down its embassy in Beirut yesterday, but denied it had severed diplomatic relations with Lebanon in a row over the disappearance of a prominent Shiite cleric, a government spokesman said.
“Libya has decided to close its office of brotherhood (embassy) in Beirut but not to cut diplomatic relations with Lebanon,” Hassuna Shaush said.
He said the decision was a protest against “the inability of the Lebanese authorities to prevent attacks by certain Lebanese officials against Libya”.
Tripoli was responding to accusations by Lebanese religious and political officials that Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi helped cover up the disappearance of prominent Shiite cleric, Imam Mussa Sadr, who went missing on a trip to Libya in 1978.
In Beirut, a senior official told AFP that Libyan Embassy employees were expected to leave the country today
“Lebanese authorities have been informed that Libya has cut diplomatic relations with Lebanon,” he said.
Lebanon was informed of Tripoli’s decision by the Libyan charge d’affaire in Beirut, another official said.
On Saturday, a group of Sadr’s followers delivered a petition to the Lebanese government demanding it take up the case against Libya at the international courts.
The petition accused Qaddafi of being responsible for the imam’s disappearance and of “having personally admitted in 2002 that Imam Sadr had been killed in Libya”.
The same day, parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri called on the government, the United Nations, the Arab League, and humanitarian aid organizations to help determine the fate of the imam.
He demanded that “the Lebanese government take up the matter... in order to learn the truth about the fate of the imam and his two companions”, who also disappeared with him.
The imam was the head of the Shiite Higher Council, the most important body in the Lebanese Shiite community, of which his Amal movement and the rival Hezbollah movement are the largest political factions.
Tripoli has always denied any responsibility in the imam’s disappearance, claiming that he and his companions had traveled to Italy at the end of their stay in Libya.
On the anniversary of Sadr’s disappearance on Sunday, Hezbollah chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, called on Qaddafi to take responsibility for the imam’s case.
“Qaddafi, personally, knows the fate of Imam Mussa Sadr,” Nasrallah told a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Nasrallah also referred to the recent settlement in which Qaddafi agreed to pay out $2.7 billion dollars in compensation for the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
“The Qaddafi regime and Qaddafi personally are standing up to explain how they got to resolve these issues... and how they paid billions of dollars, but what is more important... is to assume the responsibility,” he said.
“If he is truly speaking about courage and wisdom... then let him have the same courage to disclose the fate of Imam Mussa Sadr and bear responsibility for this issue,” Nasrallah said.
