The United States resumed direct diplomatic ties with Libya on Monday after a 24-year break, even as the Bush administration pursued reports that Moammar Gadaffi had taken part in a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s crown prince.
The announcement was made in Tripoli by assistant secretary of state William Burns after talks with Gadaffi, and also at the state department.
Burns inaugurated a new US liaison office in Tripoli in what was the latest move by the Bush administration to reciprocate for Gadaffi’s promise last December to dismantle his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programmes.
Burns said that he and J. Cofer Black, who heads the state department’s office to counter terrorism, had discussed with Gadaffi ”recent public allegations regarding Libya and Saudi Arabia”.
At the state department, spokesperson Adam Ereli said, ”I think we made clear our concerns about the story” concerning an alleged plot against Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
Burns said the two sides ”held detailed discussions on Libya’s commitment to support the global war on terrorism, to repudiate the use of violence for political purposes and to implement its pledge to cease all support for terrorism”.
Libya is one of seven nations annually branded as sponsors of terror by the department.
Burns, who is the senior department official dealing with the Middle East, gave no indication in his statement what Gadaffi may have said about the plot reports.
President George Bush, speaking with reporters earlier this month after the G-8 summit in Georgia, said US investigators were looking into reports of such a plot.
”When we find out the facts, we will deal with them accordingly,” Bush said. ”I have sent a message to him [Gadaffi] that if he honours his commitments to resist terror and to fully disclose and disarm his weapons programmes, we will begin a process of normalisation, which we have done. We will make sure he honours his commitment.”
State department spokesperson Richard Boucher said Libya had given repeated assurances not to use violence to settle political disputes after the United States received reports last year of Libyan contacts with Saudi dissidents threatening the Saudi royal family.
Allegations of a plot against Abdullah were mentioned separately by Abduraham Alamoudi, an American Muslim leader jailed in Alexandria, Virginia, on federal charges of having illegal financial dealings with Libya, and by Colonel Mohamed Ismael, a Libyan intelligence officer currently in Saudi custody.
Abdullah is Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in the absence of King Fahd, who is gravely ill.
Ereli said Monday that if the reports proved true, ”it would call into question continued development of relations with Libya”.
The United States and Libya have been reconciling at a fast pace since Gadaffi agreed last December to dismantle his programmes to develop nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Asked what Gadaffi had told the two US officials about the plot reports, Ereli said, ”I don’t have that level of detail. … We do not have enough to make a conclusive judgement, I think, one way or the other.”
Relations with Libya took a sudden lurch forward after Gadaffi started shipping parts of his weapons programme to the United States.
The Bush administration promoted that action as evidence of a success for US foreign policy.
Bush moved in April to restore normal trade and investment ties with Libya, including the import of Libyan oil. However, Libya was not removed from the state department’s terrorism list. – Sapa-AP