Travel  |  Business World  |  Women's World  |  Entertainment

Change Your Life!

Council Keeps Sanctions on Libya

News
Sports
Chat
Travel
Dhaka Today
Yellow Pages
Higher Education
Ask a Doctor
Weather
Currency Rate
Horoscope
E-Cards
B2K Poll
Comment on the Site
B2K Club

December 30, 2000 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Security Council scrapped talks Friday on a proposal to lift sanctions against Libya after the United States and Britain said they opposed the move while two Libyans are being tried in the 1988 Pan Am bombing.

Namibia, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement of developing countries, introduced a draft resolution Thursday to lift the sanctions on the grounds that Tripoli had fully cooperated with the trial.

The Security Council suspended the sanctions on April 5, 1999, after Libya handed over the two suspects wanted in the bombing of the Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people.

One of the requirements to lift the sanctions is Libya's full cooperation with the trial. ``We have made it very clear that we would not be able to support such a resolution,'' British Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said Thursday. Britain has the power to veto resolutions in a vote. Russian President Sergey Lavrov had said he would schedule consultations for Friday morning after Namibia put the draft into final form Thursday. But the group pressing for a vote backed off later in the day after the U.S. and British positions were made clear.

The sanctions were imposed in 1992 to press Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to deliver Lamen Khalifa Fhimah and Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi for trial in the bombing.

The two men have pleaded innocent to the charges and have blamed Palestinian terrorist groups. The prosecution rested its case on Nov. 20 after calling 230 witnesses in 72 days of hearings. The defense is to resume its case Jan. 8. Libyan officials say the defense proceedings could take at least another two months.

The United States has said it won't allow the measures to be fully lifted until Tripoli complies with other outstanding U.N. demands, including compensating the families of the victims, if the two defendants are convicted, and renouncing terrorism.