AP News, August 21st, 2007
The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East met with a Libyan official Tuesday to discuss arrangements for a possible a trip by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the former pariah nation later this year.
David Welch, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, arrived for two days of meetings following last month's release of six Bulgarian medical workers who had been imprisoned in the North African nation for more than eight years despite strong international objections.
"This visit is very important because it lays the ground for another important visit by Secretary Rice next month," Mohammad Sayalah, Libya's deputy foreign minister, said after talking with Welch. "The goal is to enhance bilateral relations."
Relations have slowly improved since Libya accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi bolstered the improvement by dismantling his weapons of mass destruction programs.
He also released the Bulgarian medical workers, who had been jailed for allegedly infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus _ an incident foreign experts blamed on poor hospital conditions in Libya.
Officials have said Welch would be looking to lay out details for a possible trip by Rice to Libya before year's end, perhaps in October.
President Bush recently nominated a U.S. ambassador to Libya, fulfilling a pledge Washington made after Tripoli agreed to compensate relatives of the 270 victims in the Pan Am bombing. That also earned Libya a reprieve from U.N., U.S. and European sanctions as well as removal from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Bush's ambassadorial nomination, however, has met resistance from some members of Congress. They vow to block it until Libya pays the last installment of restitution and settles claims related to the bombing of a Berlin disco in which several U.S. servicemen were killed. The disco bombing remains unresolved.
If Rice travels to Libya, she would be the first secretary of state to do so since John Foster Dulles in 1953.
Beside Welch, other U.S. top officials who have visited since relations improved include Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and White House counterterrorism adviser Frances Frago Townsend.
