Tripoli links paying Lockerbie compensations to lifting sanctions; nuclear inspectors complete first mission
The Libyan prime minister, Shukri Ghanem, threatened that if the US will not lift the sanctions from his country by the fall of May 12 this year, Libya will not abide by paying outstanding sums to the families of the victims of the Lockerbie incident.
The US New York Times quoted Ghanem as saying that Washington has to award Libya for getting rid of its banned armament program, by lifting the sanctions and releasing one billion dollars frozen in the American banks.
The Libyan official explained that the agreement with London and Washington states that if sanctions are not be lifted after 8 months from date of signing, the other 6 million dollars for each family of the victims will not be paid.
Tripoli paid for each family of the victims of the Lockerbie incident a sum of 4 million dollars, according to the agreement signed in September 2003, and resulted in lifting UN sanctions from Libya.
The paper quoted Libyan and western officials as saying that Libya persist in this settlement to that the families not get the whole sum, unless the US ends the sanctions and removes Libya's name from terrorist sponsoring states within 8 months.
Officials in the Bush administration said that the American sanctions will not be lifted, except after Libya starts implementing its obligations, and taking other steps conducive to not classifying it as a terrorism sponsoring country.
On the other hand, the spokesman for the International Agency for Atomic Energy said that the agency's inspectors completed their first mission in Libya and found complete cooperation from the Libyan authorities, The spokesman added that the inspectors who returned back to Vienna yesterday visited nine out of 10 firms linked to the Libyan nuclear program, and the 10th site will be inspected shortly. It is the place for piling natural (unprocessed) uranium.
He, however, indicated that the agency has not reached the conclusion that Tripoli ultimately has given up its nuclear program and unmasked all sites.