LONDON, 11 February 2004 — Prime Minister Tony Blair plans landmark talks with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in recognition of Tripoli’s decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction, Britain said yesterday.
An encounter between Blair and Qaddafi would mark a further step in Libya’s reintegration into the international community following its surprise pledge in December to abandon plans to develop atomic and other mass destruction weapons. “We are hoping very much that a visit can be arranged as soon as convenient but no date has yet been fixed,” said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
He was speaking at a news conference with his Libyan counterpart Mohamed Abdel Rahman Shalgham, who earlier met Blair on the first visit by a Libyan foreign minister since 1969 when Qaddafi took power in a bloodless coup. Talks between Blair and Qaddafi would set the seal on Libya’s reintegration, though Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi became the first Western leader to meet Qaddafi since his weapons pledge on a visit to Tripoli yesterday.
It was not clear whether a meeting between Blair and Qaddafi would also take place on Libyan soil.
Straw said “good progress” was being made with Libya on implementing its December 19 agreement to dismantle its weapons programs and Shalgham said his country was cooperating fully with international inspectors.
“Regarding programs of weapons of mass destruction, we are the ones who took the initiative in this matter,” Shalgham said, according to a translator.
Libya has suffered United Nations sanctions until last year for the 1988 bombing of an airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. But London and Washington have been moving rapidly to bring Tripoli back in from the cold in past months.
Last year, Libya paid $2.7 billion in compensation for Lockerbie victims. Straw said the two countries would also “enhance” their efforts to resolve the case of the 1984 killing of British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot outside the Libyan Embassy in London during a protest.
The British government played a key diplomatic role in securing December’s weapons agreement, which has given a huge boost to Libya’s efforts to end its international isolation.
Britain has moved faster than the United States to restore ties. Washington has yet to lift economic sanctions, including a ban on travel by US citizens to Libya. But after three-way talks in London last week, US officials said Washington might soon lift restrictions on travel to Libya if Tripoli continued to make progress on the pledge to halt weapons programs.
Shalgham’s meeting with Blair was the highest-level contact between the two nations for more than 20 years.
Blair met with Shalgham at Downing Street but the bulk of the issues to be addressed during the milestone visit were left for Foreign Secretary Straw, officials said.
Meanwhile, Libyan and US officials said yesterday the United States has re-established a diplomatic presence in Libya.
“Yes, Americans came to Libya to work inside the Belgian Embassy in the US interests section in Libya and Libyans will go to America to work in the Libyan interests section there,” Shalgham told a news conference in London.
A US official confirmed a diplomat had returned to the Libyan capital.
