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U.S. to Restore Diplomatic Ties With Libya
The United States will upgrade its diplomatic office in Tripoli to a full embassy, following a 15-day waiting period and discussions with Congress, the State Department said. Libya would be removed from the list of countries the United States considers to be state sponsors of terrorism following a 45-day public comment period.
Libya will also be omitted from a list released later this week of nations that fail to cooperate with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, Rice said.
  Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi signs a peace deal bewteen Sudan and Chad reached in Tripoli on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006, in this file photo. (AP Photo/Yousef Al-Ajeli) (Yousef Al-ajeli - AP) Save & Share |
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The State Department praised Libya's cooperation in getting rid of its weapons, and in helping the United States in the search for al-Qaida and other terror suspects in the Middle East and North Africa.
"This was not a decision that we arrived at without carefully monitoring and assessing Libya's behavior," Welch told reporters.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Shalgham told The Associated Press the move was not a surprise. The United States had said it planned to restore full diplomatic relations by the end of last year, but the announcement was held up by a last round of checks of Libya's compliance, officials said.
"In politics there is no such thing as a reward but there are interests," Shalgham said when asked if the restoration of ties was an incentive to Libya to further cooperate with the United States.
Families of the Pan Am victims have sometimes disagreed with U.S. policy on Libya, and with one another. With a few exceptions, victims' families accepted terms of a financial settlement reached with Libya after it took responsibility for the Pan Am bombing in 2003. Families have received more than $1 billion.
Libya had agreed to pay an additional $2 million per family upon its removal from the terrorism list, but it is not clear whether Tripoli will be bound to that pledge because it was hinged to a deadline that the United States missed.
"We have mixed emotions because there has been real progress, but as of today Libya has not fully lived up to its commitments to the United States and the victims of terrorism," a statement on behalf of most families of Pan Am 103 victims said Monday.
Libya remains a largely autocratic state with limited personal and press freedoms.
"Libyan citizens are still not able to influence politics or the political process in any meaningful way, and the state demands total conformity," a Freedom House report said last year.
In Venezuela, there has been a nearly total lack of cooperation with anti-terrorism for the last year, the State Department said.
As a result, U.S. sales and licensing for the export of defense articles and services to Venezuela, including the transfer of defense items, will be banned.
Venezuela is the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, far ahead of Libya, but relations between Chavez and the Bush administration have sharply deteriorated. Chavez has called Bush a "terrorist" and denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
Just last month, the State Department used its annual report on international terrorism to accuse Chavez of having an "ideological affinity" with two leftist guerrilla groups operating in neighboring Colombia, the FARC and the National Liberation Army. The United States considers both to be terrorist organizations.
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On the Net:
State Department fact sheet on Libya and WMD: