afrol News, 20 September - US President George Bush today decreed the lifting of all remaining sanctions against Libya. The event was hailed by Libyan authorities and US businesses - and even surviving US relatives of the Lockerbie bombing had urged for this step. Especially US oil companies have hungered for partaking in Libya's emerging second oil boom.

The US President today issued an "Executive Order" that terminated a "national emergency" declared in 1986, thus ending sanctions against Libya. According to the presidential order, this termination of sanctions came after recent "policies and actions of the government of Libya," in particular actions to eliminate Libya's previous programmes of weapons of mass destruction.

This move by the US government will lift both sanctions on civilian air travel between the two countries and a freeze on an estimated US$ 1 billion in US assets that belong to Libya or in which Libya has an interest. It will normalise the ties between Washington and Tripoli and terminate all remaining hinders for US companies to invest in Libya.

The order is also likely to lead to the release of more than $US 1 billion reparations from Libyan authorities to families of PanAm flight 103 victims. The American aircraft in 1988 exploded over the Scottish village Lockerbie in a terrorist action attributed to Libya. Tripoli has agreed to pay reparations to the surviving relatives but rejects formal responsibility for the terrorist action.

The decision to lift these last sanctions on Libya today was welcomed by a Washington law firm that represents investors in the Libyan market, Butera & Andrews. "This is great news," commented John McInespie of the US company. "The opportunities in Libya are certainly there but what is needed is expertise of the highest levels. The Libyans are looking to make the best deals."

The Bush administration in Washington today celebrated the move as reaching "another milestone" in the US government's "effort to combat the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of their delivery," according to White House press secretary Scott McClellan. "As a result, concerns over weapons of mass destruction no longer pose a barrier to the normalisation of US-Libyan relations," he added.

Regarding the survivors of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing, Mr McClellan said that President Bush now expected the families to "receive over US$ 1 billion in additional compensation from Libya." This would happen parallel to US government "action to unblock frozen assets" at approximately the same size.

Representatives from the Lockerbie victims' families last week had urged a quick normalisation of US-Libyan ties. Pam Akerstrom, wife of a PanAm Flight 103 victim, on Thursday warned the Bush administration of a 22 September legal deadline, meaning that Libya would not have to pay assets still owed to the families if the US did not lift two remaining sanctions by that date.

- It comes down to this: Does the US view Libya as a terrorist state or not? said Mr Akerstrom. "If Libya is still viewed as a terrorist state, then why has the US removed any sanctions? If it's not a terrorist state, why not remove the last remaining sanctions so that Libya can make good on its settlement with the families of the victims of Pan Am 103?" she added.

The answer was given today by the US White House: Libya's terrorism affiliation is now history, in the view of the US government. Colonel Ghaddafi's Libya however had not turned a model state, spokesman McClellan noted. The US would therefore "continue its dialogue with Libya on human rights, political and economic modernisation, and regional political developments."

By staff writer

© afrol News

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