Libya criticizes Washington for not allowing air trips to Tripoli
Libya-USA, Politics, 7/14/1998

The Libyan general popular committee for foreign communications and international cooperation issued a statement yesterday in which it criticized the declarations of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who said that the U.S. will not support in the future any air trip to Tripoli to visit Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gaddafi, who has recently undergone a surgical operation.

The statement said that Albright's statements -- in which she said on Friday that although the UN allowed a flight last week by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, "A one-time humanitarian visit was appropriate, but we are not going to go along with any further visits by anyone for the purpose of just paying courtesy calls" -- are a clear indication of the US administration's attempt to dominate the United Nations.

In a statement, the secretariat said these statements, are but clear evidences of "US attempts to impose hegemony on the UN," to speak on its behalf and to take the humanitarian role of this organization which is considered the "hope of people in consolidating world peace and security."

Libya is under a UN-imposed international air embargo as a result of its refusal to extradite two suspects in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland which killed 270 people. The Organization of African Unity at its recent summit said it would stop adhering to economic sanctions against Libya if the Security Council does not reconsider the sanctions by September, and the air embargo has recently been broken twice.

Previous Stories:
  Somalia: Gaddafi pledges to pay costs of capital's administration   (7/13/1998)
  US objects to Arafat's flight to Libya   (7/11/1998)
  Chadian, Libyan airplanes penetrate air embargo   (7/7/1998)

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