Libya Ready To Deal?
Saudi Arabian diplomats told U.N. officials that Libya has agreed to a deal to bring to trial two Libyan suspects in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, a U.N. spokesman said Saturday.
Saudi officials told U.N. chief Kofi Annan on Friday that the Libyans had accepted a U.S.-British offer, which would include the transfer of the suspects from Libya to the Netherlands, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
The suspects would be tried in the Netherlands by Scottish judges under Scottish law according to the deal, Eckhard said. If convicted, they would be imprisoned in Scotland.
Libya agreed to the unusual trial arrangement last August but then balked at the prospect of the suspects facing imprisonment in Scotland for the bombing, which killed 270 people, mainly Britons and Americans.
Libya's foreign ministry "believes that positive results have been achieved concerning reaching a solution of the so-called Lockerbie case," the official Libyan news agency JANA reported Saturday, quoting a foreign ministry source.
The statement said "the progress" should lead to the lifting of U.N. sanctions on Libya. The sanctions, in place since 1992, ban air travel to and from Libya and limit the sale of oil equipment.
The U.S. State Department had no immediate comment.
In South Africa, a statement from President Nelson Mandela's office also said there had been progress toward resolving the issue. Envoys from that country had just returned from meeting with Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.
"We are happy to be able to announce that positive results were achieved in these discussions and that common understanding was reached on all the outstanding issues on this matter," the statement said, giving no further details.
In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said that he could not comment on the reports that Libya had agreed the two suspects could be jailed in Scotland if convicted.
"We can only respond when we have had dealings with the U.N.," he said, speaking with customary anonymity.