Congress report: Libya may be removed from list of terror sponsors

Reports by the US Congress' Congressional Research Service stated that the Clinton administration is seeking to remove Libya from the US list of the terrorism-sponsoring states and that Syria will not be far from a similar measure.

The annual report concerning the revolutionary groups in the Middle East which was released by the congress last week said, "Libya's sponsoring of terrorism" has greatly receded to the extent that the administration is thinking of lifting it from the list. The report added that Libya had also handed over the two Libyans suspected to be involved in the Lockerbie incident of December 21, 1988 crash, all making Libya "a strong candidate to have her name omitted from the list of countries which sponsor terrorism."

Meanwhile, an official at the US State Department said that he does not know the grounds for this report. He stressed the need "of Libya's taking tangible and concrete steps to end its backing to terrorism and to give it up," a matter that "she did not do," adding that Libya has to show its commitment to the other conditions stated in the resolutions of the UN Security Council concerning Lockerbie."

However, the annual report of the US State Department on terrorism,"Patterns of Global Terrorism," released in April, said Libya continues to harass the separatists abroad and continues to back Palestinian organizations, including the al-Jihad al-Islami organization and the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command.

The report added that Syria which has also been included in the American list of the terrorism-sponsoring states for 20 years, may be also removed from this list through its moves to resume peace talks with Israel.