UN schedules Libya debate, maintains sanctions for now

The UN Security Council yesterday held its regularly-scheduled review of sanctions against Libya. The Security Council decided that the sanctions will remain in place unchanged, but that they will be the subject of a debate later this month.

The International Court of Justice decided on February 27 that it has jurisdiction to rule on a Libyan complaint over US demands that two Libyan suspects in the Lockerbie case be extradited for trial in Scotland or the US. That decision has received widespread Arab and international support.

The two men are suspects in the 1988 explosion of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie Scotland that killed a total of 270 people in the air and on the ground.

Libya maintains that since the court decided it has jurisdiction, the case is not a Security Council matter and the sanctions should be lifted. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said, "The UN Security Council has to promptly lift the sanctions or at least suspend them until the two suspected Libyans appear before the international court."

Libya has offered to allow the two men to be tried in a neutral nation.

US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson said, "The United Nations Security Council has reaffirmed our search for justice. The international community remains steadfast in its determination that sanctions imposed against Libya for its failure to turn over the two men accused of this crime will remain in place until there is compliance with the will of the international community." He said that the US or Scotland have "transparent and fair legal system[s]" that would allow a fair trial.

Debates over maintaining the sanctions are scheduled to be held on March 20.