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Qadhafi Travels to Belgium to Meet With EU Officials
Libyan leader Col. Muammar Qadhafi arrived today at the European Commission in Brussels during his first visit to Europe in 15 years after making progress on dismantling Libya’s WMD programs, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, April 26). Qadhafi, with senior Libyan officials, arrived at the commission to discuss “full normalization” of relations between the European Union and Libya and to discuss Tripoli’s access to an aid and trade program the EU conducts with Mediterranean nations, according to AP (Paul Geitner, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 27). Meanwhile, USA Today reported that U.S. negotiations to persuade Tripoli to abandon its WMD efforts began in 1992, when Libya’s programs were in a rudimentary state. Libya began attempting to restore ties with the United States after Libyan intelligence operatives were indicted in 1991 for the bombing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, sources said. The Clinton administration then initiated a secret communications channel with Libya, which resulted in two assistant secretaries of state, Martin Indyk and Edward Walker, holding five meetings with Libyan officials from May 1999 to early 2000, USA Today reported. “We went with a long laundry list of things we expected the Libyans to do to ‘graduate’ from U.S. sanctions,” Indyk told the Middle East Institute earlier this month. “They were prepared to accept pretty much all the requirements we had,” he said. During the second meeting, Libya agreed to sign an international agreement renouncing chemical weapons and to submit to inspections; at that point the United States was unaware of Libya’s nuclear program, Indyk said. Walker said negotiations were later suspended in 2000 because of concerns that news of the effort might leak during that year’s U.S. presidential campaign. Once President George W. Bush came into office, Walker briefed officials about the negotiations, but the administration did not immediately move to resume the negotiations, according to USA Today. Bush administration officials were “somewhat stunned these negotiations had been held and nervous about it,” Walker said. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration reopened the channel with Libya, USA Today reported. A high-level U.S. State Department official said that the administration informed Tripoli that Libya’s WMD efforts would be the biggest obstacle to restoring relations with Washington once the Lockerbie case had been resolved (Barbara Slavin, USA Today, April 27).
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