LIBYA - The Campaign Against Terror - Part 10.

Libya, under Col. Moammar Qadhafi, had begun to make efforts to improve relations with the West well before the events of Sept. 11, 2001. It was gradually improving its image, by co-operating with the US and Britain over the Lockerbie bombing issue, among other things. The airline attacks on the World Trade Centre towers and the Pentagon changed the global situation in a way nobody could have envisaged. Washington offered the choice of being with the US or with the terrorists, and the Libyan response was clear: it was not on the side of the terrorists. This was signaled in many ways, include discreet behind the scenes provision of intelligence information to the US.

This approach has yielded rewards. Libya is no longer automatically linked with other states the US regards as being part of an "axis of evil" or a state sponsoring terrorism. On the contrary, British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien visited Libya on Aug. 7, 2002, for talks with the Libyan leader (see next articles). In announcing the visit, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said that the decision to make the trip - the first by a British minister since 1983 - followed a "hardheaded assessment that Libya is turning away from international terrorism" that was shared by the US. There was still "some way to go" for Qadhafi to reassure the West but it was right to encourage him to cooperate, she added.

There is still criticism of Libya in the West, but it is largely muted in continental Europe and increasingly in Britain. This is partly because Libya has been spending large sums of money aimed at improving its image in Europe and the US, and also because over the years Qadhafi has distanced himself from groups labelled by the West as terrorist.

Perhaps the best form of symbolic endorsement for Libya's new image came from the terrorist Carlos the Jackal. In an interview given to 'As Safir' daily, and published on July 29, 2002, Carlos berated Qadhafi for buckling under foreign pressure and betraying the Irish Republican Army in its armed struggle in Northern Ireland. Equally important is an endorsement with more than symbolic value given by Western oil companies, which have a major influence on the way their governments view any regime. According to the British "Robertson's International New Ventures Survey", which polls oil companies involved in exploration and production ventures outside North America, Libya tops the rankings in 2002 as the country most favoured by oil companies. Libya came ahead of the UK and Australia. It is Libya's third successive year in top position.

Yet Libya continues to come under criticism from some US politicians, and it has recently come in for strong criticism in Israel as well. On Sept. 5, 2002, Israeli Premier Sharon said that Iraq and North Korea were helping Libya develop powerful weapons. "Libya is becoming perhaps a more dangerous country", he said on Israel TV, claiming that "Libya may be the first (Arab) country with weapons of mass destruction". Sharon comments came on the heels of a recent report to Congress by the CIA Chief George Tenet that said Libya had a nuclear research program but would "require significant foreign assistance to advance a nuclear weapons option". The report also said that Libya was dependent on foreign suppliers for material to produce chemical-weapons related equipment.

On the Libyan side, there is concern that, regardless of the way it has managed to improve its image in recent years, especially since the lifting of UN sanctions in April 1999, things could go in reverse quickly. Like most other Arab countries, the Libyan regime is concerned that after Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq is overthrown, any one of them could be the next target. Qadhafi is opposed to an American assault on Iraq. On Sept. 1, 2002, he said: "The collapse of the Iraqi regime will turn Iraq into another Afghanistan...Saddam Hussein's regime is better for them (the US and allies). It is a strong regime" that will not allow Islamic extremists to take over.

For his part, Col. Qadhafi has managed to retain his image of a somewhat eccentric ruler, championing Third World causes and regional unity programmes without much success. His latest effort is to take leadership of the African Union, formed at a summit in Durban on June 28-July 10, 2002. However, this will prove to be a complex and perhaps impossible task in view of competition from South Africa for the same role.