afrol News, 24 March - The relations between the United States and Libya have experienced a breakthrough after US Assistant Secretary of State William J Burns yesterday met Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi in Tripoli. Colonel Gaddafi was handed a letter from US President George W. Bush, hailing Libya's voluntary destruction of weapons of mass destruction.
The Tripoli visit by Mr Burns represents the first talks between senior US and Libyan officials in 24 years. The last bilateral talks on this level were in 1980, some months after relations began to cool following an attack by Libyan citizens on the US embassy in Tripoli.
Since that, several terrorist attacks on US interests believed to be orchestrated by Colonel Gaddafi led to the introduction of US sanctions against Libya and the suspension of diplomatic relations. While Washington yet has to lift economic sanctions on Tripoli, the American government recently lifted the travel ban for US citizens wanting to visit Libya.
According to US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, the discussions held in Tripoli regarding the future of US-Libyan relations "were very constructive." The dialogue was "reflecting the gradual, step-by-step normalisation in our bilateral relationship that has been made possible by Libya's historic steps to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction ... and to adhere to its renunciation of terrorism, added Mr Boucher.
In meetings with Colonel Gaddafi and the Libyan leadership, Mr Burns had repeated that "President Bush welcomes Libyan actions to repudiate weapons of mass destruction as a source of insecurity, not security." According to the US State Department, Libya had now "demonstrated that it is intent on opening a new chapter in relations with the United States and the rest of the world."
Assistant Secretary Burns yesterday confirmed that the "excellent progress" that Libya has made in implementing its weapons of mass destruction and missile commitments "allows us to look forward to continued improvements in our bilateral relations."
The US government repeated its unwillingness to lift all sanctions against Libya at this stage. So far, the travel ban for Americans to Libya has been lifted and US companies have been allowed to start negotiating possible business deals in Libya after the remaining sanctions are lifted. The US government has allowed Libya to establish an "Interests Section" in Washington, which later will develop into an embassy and US diplomats now work in the Belgian embassy in Tripoli.
The next steps, according to Mr Burns, was to enhance the humanitarian cooperation between the US and Libya. A Libyan educational delegation is set to leave for Washington and the US are to send a medical assessment team to Tripoli. Further, representatives of the two countries were now "exploring areas for humanitarian cooperation."
Looking to the future, Mr Burns also had "discussed potential measures to normalise trade and investment under discussion, and plans to establish a US Liaison Office, reflecting the growing depth and breadth of our bilateral engagement," according to spokesman Boucher. Libyan officials had highlighted their "interest in further integrating with the world economy" and the two sides had agreed on "the need to conduct further discussions on those important issues."
The Libyan representatives had also agreed that political and economic modernisation must be addressed for fully normal relations to be re-established," according to Mr Boucher. In this regard, the US government had welcomed Libya's decision to invite the human rights group Amnesty International to visit, as well as the recent release of political prisoner Fathi El-Jahmi.
While the improvements in US-Libyan relations is going at a slow speed - although the US delegation went far in promising a future normalisation - most European countries have already fully normalised their relations with Tripoli. The has also enabled European companies to get a first choice regarding investments and trade deals in Libya, to the frustration of US companies.
Nevertheless, the Libyan oil industry is totally dependent of the lifting of US sanctions to be able to modernise and develop further. US companies hold a majority of the world's oil-related technology patents and are key producers of many oil production-related products. These still cannot be exported to Libya, something that gravely has hurt Libya's economic development during the last two decades.
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