TRIPOLI, 26 March 2004 — Setting aside decades of acrimony over Libyan sponsorship of terrorism, British Prime Minister Tony Blair chatted cordially yesterday with Muammar Qaddafi in a desert tent and said Libya’s leader can be an important partner in the war on terror.
In return, Blair, during the first visit by a British leader since Qaddafi took power in 1969, said Britain would strengthen cultural ties and offer a “new military relationship” to a country long considered a pariah, which once armed Britain’s foe, the Irish Republican Army. He was not specific, but appointed Maj. Gen. Robin Vincent Searby as Britain’s defense coordinator with Libya.
The two men smiled and shook hands then settled into low chairs inside Gaddafi’s tent, hung with tapestries of camels and palm trees.
Outside, a herd of camels wandered. After their 90-minute meeting, Blair lauded Libya’s progress in dismantling its chemical, nuclear and biological programs and said it “gives us real hope we can build a new relationship with it for the modern world.”
“We are showing by our engagement with Libya that it is possible for countries in the Arab world to work with the United States and the United Kingdom to defeat a common enemy of extremist fanatical terrorism driven by Al-Qaeda, and to ensure that we have a more secure world because of the absence of weapons of mass destruction,” Blair said.
Britain has a history of grievances with Qaddafi, who supplied shiploads of weapons to the IRA in the 1980s. It broke off diplomatic relations with Libya in 1984 after British policewoman Yvonne Fletcher was killed by a shot fired from a window of the Libyan Embassy, or “People’s Bureau,” in London. Relations hit bottom after Libya was implicated in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people.
But the two countries restored diplomatic relations in 1999 after Libya accepted responsibility for Fletcher’s shooting, apologized and agreed to pay her family compensation. Blair said British detectives would visit Libya on April 3 as part of the investigation into Fletcher’s death. No one has been charged with her killing.
Qaddafi’s government also took responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and agreed to compensate relatives of the victims, a move that resulted in the lifting of UN sanctions against Libya.
Now, Britain has taken the diplomatic lead in ending Libya’s international isolation. The visit marked a major step back into the international mainstream for the North African state — and economic benefits are well on their way.
During the visit, Blair said BAE Systems, a major British defense manufacturer, will announce a deal in Libya shortly. And Royal Dutch/Shell Group said it has signed a preliminary agreement with Libya to develop gas resources in the North African nation. A Blair spokesman said that the deal was worth $200 million and potentially $1 billion.
But experts said the major spoils may go to the United States. “Qaddafi knows the only game in town is Washington, so there will be a big slice of Libyan oil for the Americans,” said Fred Halliday of the London School of Economics.
Blair aides said Libya could expect cooperation with its defense needs and Britain would, in time, push for a European Union arms embargo to be lifted. Libyan officers may be invited to train in Britain, as Qaddafi himself did as a junior army officer in 1966.
Some in Britain have criticized strengthening ties, but Blair said countries that cooperate with the international community should be welcomed back into the fold.
“I was particularly struck by Col. Qaddafi’s... recognition that Libya’s own future is best secured by a new relationship with the outside world and of a common cause with us in the fight against Al-Qaeda extremism and terrorism, which threatens not just the West but Arab nations, too,” Blair said.
