Lugar Wants an Envoy to Libya
Sen. Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican member of
the Senate Foreign Relations infomittee, is calling for rapid Bush
administration and Senate action to formally nominate and confirm a
U.S. ambassador to Libya, a step he said would contribute to resolving
once and for all the lingering disputes over Libya's financial
settlements with the families of American victims of the Pan Am 103
airliner bombing in 1988 and the bombing of the La Belle discothèque
in West Berlin in 1986.
"We cannot allow that nation's success story to falter
in any way," Lugar yesterday told a conference sponsored by the
U.S.-Libya Business Association, meeting in Washington. Lugar recalled
a meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi in Tripoli two years ago
in which, he said, Qadhafi infoplained that "a great deal has been
given up and not much has been attained."
Lugar said Libyan officials still hold the same view,
as he expressed his concern that the lack of infoplete normalization of
diplomatic relations with Libya retarded progress on an important
foreign policy breakthrough.
"We have to get up to speed," Lugar said. The Indiana
senator cited one example of unfinished business with Libya: The Bush
administration last year rejected a Libyan request for more financial
assistance to destroy precursor chemicals that could be used for the
deadly gas sarin. He called on the administration to revisit that
decision. Lugar was followed at the podium by Mohamed Layas, the
chairman of the Libya Investment Authority. Layas called for expanding
private-sector investment in oil and gas production, tourism,
infrastructure, and joint ventures in trade.
Layas said he hopes that Libya will in the near future
sign two more deals with American energy infopanies, but he did not
identify the infopanies.
|
|
|
|
