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Pah-Wraith
Sheikh
Joined: 30 Nov 2001
Posts: 6012
Location: Londonistan.
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 Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:46 pm Blair to hold historic talks with Gaddafi |
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| Quote: | Wednesday March 24, 03:11 PM
Blair to hold historic talks with Gaddafi
By Madeline Chambers
Click to enlarge photo
MADRID (Reuters) - Tony Blair will help usher Libya back into the international community this week when he becomes the first British leader to visit Tripoli since Winston Churchill in World War Two.
Blair will meet Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in a tent on the outskirts of the Libyan capital on Thursday.
"We believe Gaddafi has made important strategic decisions on weapons of mass destruction and on Lockerbie and we want to demonstrate our support for those decisions," a senior British government official told reporters on Wednesday.
Libya announced in December it was abandoning any efforts to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, a new attempt to mend ties with the West after agreeing to pay damages for the 1988 PanAm plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.
Some critics asked however whether the prime minister's mission was more about trade than politics.
The official said UK business would gain from closer ties with Libya, until recently seen by the West as a pariah state.
Royal Dutch/Shell may sign an outline deal within days for offshore gas exploration rights, he said, while defence contractor BAE Systems announced it was in talks on aviation projects, including potential aircraft sales.
Blair will also offer UK military training for Libyan troops.
Charity Oxfam criticised any potential arms deals.
"Decisions on arms sales should be based on issues of conflict, human rights and poverty. Using them as a reward for short-term political cooperation smacks of the bad old days of British arms policy," said spokesman Phil Bloomer.
WASHINGTON THAWS TOO
Washington, also rebuilding ties with Libya, sent a senior official to meet Gaddafi on Tuesday.
Many of the Lockerbie victims were American.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said William Burns, the highest ranking member of an American government to visit Libya in more than 30 years, had had "good discussions" with Gaddafi.
Libyan Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassouna Chaouch said the talks were a positive step in building ties of trust between Tripoli and Washington while Blair's visit would "illustrate the excellent relations that exist between Libya and Great Britain".
Blair was in Spain on Wednesday for a memorial service for the victims of this month's Madrid train bombings that killed 190 people. He then flew on to Portugal for talks.
His Conservative opponents condemned the Gaddafi meeting.
"I imagine it will cause considerable distress to the families of the victims of Lockerbie," Conservative leader Michael Howard told BBC Radio.."
But Jim Swire, a spokesman for some of the families of the Lockerbie victims, welcomed Blair's engagement with Gaddafi.
"It means there is one less nation that might in future be inclined to back terrorism and therefore it reduces the chances of further terrorist attacks," he told Reuters.
Britain cut diplomatic ties with Tripoli after the fatal shooting of policewoman Yvonne Fletcher outside Libya's embassy in London in 1984. Gunfire appeared to come from the embassy |
Taken from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040324/325/epdw7.html
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Monkey
Captain
Joined: 05 Feb 2004
Posts: 833
Location: On a quest you probably wouldn't believe.
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| Wed Mar 31, 2004 6:52 am |
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okay then
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