OWN CORRESPONDENT, Tripoli | Tuesday 10.30PM.
THE Arab League is to send a delegation to Libya to hold talks on the stalled Lockerbie-bombing trial deal, the League’s Libyan representative, Salma Rashed, said on Tuesday.
A diplomatic official said the trip was part of Arab League secretary-general Esmat Abdel Meguid’s “efforts to find a quick solution to the affair”. Rashed said the delegation will hold talks on a “formula” for a Lockerbie trial to be submitted to the pan-Arab organisation’s 22 foreign ministers during their September summit in Cairo. The formula will represent the united Arab position, the official said.
Libya last week welcomed an offer by Britain and the United States to hold a trial in the Netherlands using Scottish law and Scottish judges for the two suspects in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.
But after first accepting the offer with “no conditions”, Libyan leader Moamer Gadaffi last week called for negotiations on the procedures of the trial and “guarantees” on the fate of the suspects, demands which have been rejected.
Libya also insists that the Arab League pass a resolution demanding the “immediate” lifing of the sanctions by Arab countries. The UN imposed sanctions on Tripoli in 1992 because of its refusal to allow extradition of the suspects for trial in the United States or Britain.