tagged w/ Moammar Gadhafi
-
Officials are trying to prevent Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from staying in a northern New Jersey suburb on his first visit to the United States.Officials are trying to prevent Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from staying in a... more
-
-
Condoleezza Rice said her historic trip to Libya in September to meet with leader Moammar Gadhafi was one of the high points of her service.Condoleezza Rice said her historic trip to Libya in September to meet with leader... more
-
-
The Kremlin didn't appear at all phased by the addition of the tent.
"He takes it with him on all his foreign trips," said one Kremlin official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
Asked whether the Libyan leader planned to live there during his stay in Moscow, he said it was only one of Gadhafi's options.
"This is a game," he said.
Accounts of the exact location of the tent differed, however. A Kremlin official said it had been pitched in the Tainitsky, or "Secret," Garden within the Kremlin walls on the Moscow River side, while an officer with the Kremlin Guard Service said the tent had been erected indoors, in a Kremlin building in which Stalin used to watch movies.
During his visit to France last year, as relations between Libya and the European Union were opening up, Gadhafi put up his tent on the lawn of Hotel Marigny, across the street from the Elysee Palace.
While still president, Vladimir Putin revived ties between the two Cold War allies during an April visit to Tripoli, where he agreed to write off $4.5 billion in debt in exchange for hefty business deals. The talks with Putin were held in Gadhafi's tent.
"I hope the visit will be helpful for our relations," Gadhafi told Medvedev at the Maiendorf presidential residence during Friday evening's informal dinner.
"We have friendly ties, which have been developed over several decades," Medvedev said.
Gadhafi is scheduled to hold informal talks with Medvedev and Putin on Saturday.
"Relations will receive a significant boost during the talks," said Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.
In a sign that the Kremlin wanted Libya to make good on earlier agreements, the presidential administration said Friday that the talks would focus on steps to implement deals reached in April.
Putin oversaw the signing of 10 trade, investment and political agreements in Libya, the largest of which was a 2.2 billion euro contract to build a 550-kilometer railway linking the cities of Sirte and Benghazi.
Russian Railways said Friday that work on the contract was proceeding on schedule and Libya had begun importing the construction equipment and materials for the project.
Gazprom and Tatneft also signed deals for the development of six oil and gas fields in the North African OPEC member.
On Friday, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller met with Libya's National Oil Corporation head Shukri Ghanem. The two agreed on a three-way meeting between Gazprom, NOC and Italy's Eni to be held in November, the company said.
Saturday's talks will also focus on arms sales and the use of "the peaceful atom," the Kremlin said in a statement.
Libya could also agree to buy over $2 billion of Russian arms during the talks, a Defense Ministry source said on Friday, Interfax reported.
Tripoli is interested in S-300 and TOR-M1 surface-to-air missile systems and Su-30 and Mig-29 fighter jets, among other weapons, the source said.
Peskov and Kremlin spokespeople declined to discuss any possible arms agreements, while others were skeptical over the likelihood of any big weapons deals during this visit.
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, said Gadhafi was "only interested in arms as part of a broader package."
The Kremlin didn't appear at all phased by the addition of the tent.
"He... more
-
-
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- The United States and Libya sealed a historic turnaround after decades of terrorist killings, American retaliation, suspicions and insults with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's peacemaking visit Friday with Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's mercurial strongman.
"The relationship has been moving in a good direction for a number of years now and I think tonight does mark a new phase," Rice said following a traditional Muslim dinner - the evening meal that breaks the day's fast observed during the holy month of Ramadan - at Gadhafi's official Bab el-Azizia residence. It is the same compound hit by U.S. airstrikes in 1986 in retaliation for a deadly Libyan-linked terrorist attack in Germany. The attack killed Gadhafi's baby daughter.
"We did talk about learning from the lessons of the past," Rice said. "We talked about the importance of moving forward. The United States, I've said many times, doesn't have any permanent enemies."
Rice is the highest-ranking American official to visit Libya in a half-century. The United States considers Gadhafi rehabilitated since the days when President Reagan called him the "mad dog of the Middle East," because of the Libyan's surprise decision in 2003 to renounce terrorism and give up weapons of mass destruction. His government has also agreed to resolve legal claims from the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and other alleged terror attacks that bore Libyan fingerprints.
"Libya has changed, American has changed, the world has changed," Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said following a meeting with Rice. "Forget the past."
Gadhafi welcomed Rice in a room redolent of incense. Wearing flowing white robes, his trademark fez and a green pin of Africa, Gadhafi bowed slightly and put his right hand over his heart in a traditional Arab greeting. The two did not shake hands, but Gadhafi did shake the hands of Rice's male aides.
They then exchanged pleasantries, with Rice offering Gadhafi greetings from President Bush and Gadhafi asking about the hurricanes that have hit or are headed to the U.S. mainland, before dozens of reporters, photographers and television cameramen were ushered out.
Their small talk belied almost 30 years of dismal U.S.-Libyan relations that hit their low point in the 1980s when Reagan ordered the retaliatory airstrike and Gadhafi swore revenge.TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- The United States and Libya sealed a historic turnaround after... more
-
-
ivxx
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to make a "historic" first visit to Libya on Friday, the state department has announced. Her visit will be the first by a US secretary of state to Libya since 1953.
Libya was on the state department list of sponsors of terrorism until 2006, after it abandoned weapons of mass destruction and renounced terrorism. On Monday, Libya agreed on compensation for families of the victims of the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie in 1988. The deal paved the way for Ms Rice's visit to what was once considered a pariah state.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was described by late President Ronald Reagan as a "mad dog", will host Ms Rice. The state department said this was proof that the US does not have permanent enemies and showed the success of the Bush administration's non-proliferation policies. Washington is hoping to show other countries like North Korea and Iran how they could benefit from a rapprochement with the US.
For Libya, it all started in 2003, when Mr Qaddafi decided to give up his weapons of mass destruction and renounce terrorism. Washington restored diplomatic ties with Libya in 2006 but the last remaining piece of the puzzle was the comprehensive plan that was agreed by the two countries earlier this month to compensate relatives of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. Mr Gaddafi this week also hailed the end of his country's long estrangement from the US, but said all Libya wanted now was to be left alone. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to make a "historic" first visit... more
-
-
Italy agreed to pay Libya $5 billion as compensation for its 30-year occupation of the country ending in 1943, the Libyan foreign minister told reporters Saturday.
Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said that visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is set to sign a memorandum pledging a $5 billion compensation package consisting of construction projects, student grants, and pensions for Libyans who served with the Italians during the Second World War.
"It is a material and emotional recognition of the mistakes that our country has done to yours during the colonial era," Berlusconi told reporters at the airport on his arrival. "This agreement opens the path to further cooperation."
In return, Italy wants Libya to crack down on illegal migrants turning up on Italian shores and will fund $500 million worth of electronic monitoring devices on the Libyan coastline.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi received Berlusconi under a big tent in Benghazi where they discussed the agreement over lunch. The Italian leader said $200 million of the package would be for infrastructure projects over the next 25 years, including a coastal highway stretching across the country from Tunisia to Egypt.
Berlusconi's office said in a statement that the premier would also hand over the Venus of Cyrene, an ancient Roman statue taken in 1913 by Italian troops from the ruins of the Greek and Roman settlement of Cyrene, on the Libyan coast.
Relations between the two countries have warmed over the last few years, with Italian leaders meeting Gadhafi several times. However it has taken years of negotiations for the two sides to hammer out a deal on compensation for Italy's rule over Libya from 1911 to 1943
Libya named Aug. 30, Libyan-Italian Friendship Day.
Italy agreed to pay Libya $5 billion as compensation for its 30-year occupation of the... more
-
