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Un tries head off french veto Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/10_09_03/art26.asphttp://www.dailystar.com.lb/10_09_03/art26.asp
UN tries to head off French veto over Libya
US, Britain want sanctions lifted
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Facing a threatened French veto, the UN Security Council entered closed consultations Tuesday over a resolution that would lift UN sanctions imposed against Libya after the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Scotland.
France told key council members early Tuesday it would abstain in the vote. But it later sought to delay the vote until an agreement is reached to increase compensation for victims of the 1989 bombing of a French airliner over Niger.
In a gesture of goodwill to appease Paris, Libya hinted that it has dropped a threat to nationalize French oil interests if France did not accept its compensation offer for the 1989 mid-air blast.
France, which has Security Council veto power, has said it cannot allow the lifting of sanctions until families of the 170 victims of the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airliner over Niger have been assured a fair settlement.
Libya’s Association of Libyan Economists which was almost certainly reflecting government views suggested in a statement Monday that Libya cut economic ties with France if it did not accept Libya’s payout offer for the airliner bombing.
On Tuesday however, Libyan official news agency Jana revised the report without mentioning the suggestion of nationalizing French oil interests in Libya.
Libyan officials were not immediately available to comment on the report change, but diplomats in Tripoli believe both reports were issued under instructions of government officials.
Though Libya has never admitted responsibility for blowing up the UTA flight, it paid $34 million to France in 1999 after a Paris court convicted six Libyans in absentia for the attack.
Paris accepted it at the time as a final settlement, but families have said only around a third of that went to them as compensation and some say they have so far received no cash.
Sources close to the talks between Libyan authorities and representatives of the UTA families and the French government say the amount of additional compensation in discussion now is between $500,000 and $1 million per family.
The United States and Britain drafted the UN resolution last month after Libya took blame for the mid-air bombing of the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay up to $10 million to the families of each of the attack’s 270 victims.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told his British counterpart, Jack Straw, that France would use its veto
to oppose the resolution “in the absence of an equitable agreement,” the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Britain, which is the current president of the council, agreed to delay the council vote for two hours, until 4.30pm. The Security Council diplomats were still in consultations after that.
“The victims’ families must confirm their satisfaction with the negotiations that would be the deciding factor for us,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous said Tuesday in Paris. “The moment the representatives of the families can tell us they have a basis for a satisfactory agreement we will be ready to draw conclusions about the … sanctions.”
He added that negotiations were “moving along” and that France was hoping for a positive resolution.
The United States, which has its own sanctions on Libya, was prepared to abstain on the vote to lift UN sanctions, the council diplomat said. Britain was still determined to hold a vote.
“Clearly it is a dynamic situation, but it is still our intention to call a vote today,” Prime Minister Tony Blair’s official spokesman said, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity.
Francoise Rudetzki, who advises the French families, told The Associated Press on Monday that the families were still waiting for an offer from Libya and wanted the vote put off.
“What we hope is that the vote will be a little bit more delayed to obtain a settlement, and if the British insist on calling for a vote, we hope that France will veto the resolution,” said Rudetzki.
The UN sanctions were imposed in 1992 to force Moammar Gadhafi’s government to surrender two men wanted in the Lockerbie bombing.
The sanctions a ban on arms sales and air links with Libya were indefinitely suspended in 1999 after the two Libyans were handed over for trial, but Libya has pressed for the embargoes to be lifted not just suspended to restore its standing in the international community.
Britain and the United States have said that Libya has met all the requirements to lift the strictures.
If the resolution is approved, the ban on arms sales and air links would end immediately.
The United States has said it will maintain its own sanctions and keep Libya on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Under the sanctions, US oil companies are banned from doing business in Libya, and they chafe at being kept out of a country in the top 10 on the oil reserves list while European companies are there. The sanctions also bar most US travel to Libya.
Libya, in what it portrays as a sign of good will, refuses to sell rights to the large concessions US oil companies abandoned after the US sanctions were imposed in 1986. Agencies
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