Saturday, August 22, 2009 LONDON: The release of the Lockerbie bomber is casting a long shadow over relations between Britain and the United States, where senior figures in the Obama Administration have expressed dismay over the Government’s failure to take a stand. The controversy over the decision to let Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi go home to Libya was further stirred after Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, said in a Libyan television interview yesterday that his release was linked to negotiations over oil and gas contracts. Downing Street insisted that the decision — condemned by the White House yesterday as “outrageous and disgusting” — was a matter solely for the SNP-led Scottish government. However, a senior US official told media last night, “We believe it was the wrong decision — I don’t know if the UK thinks so or not. It has been extraordinarily silent on this issue.” The official suggested that it was disingenuous for the Government to claim that responsibility lay only with the devolved Scottish government because the release of al-Megrahi had wider foreign policy implications. Although diplomats say that Washington understands the constitutional independence of the Scottish Justice Ministry, some US policymakers are known to believe that the Government has deliberately “walked by the other side of the street”, possibly in the hope of earning a vast trade pay-back from a country with the biggest proven oil reserves in Africa. Shortly after the former Prime Minister Tony Blair flew to Libya to meet Colonel Gaddafi in 2007, BG Group, Shell and BP secured substantial contracts with Libya. Yesterday David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, dismissed any suggestion that al-Megrahi’s release was linked to business deals as “a slur”. In the wake of Washington’s outrage, however, he warned that the way in which the Libyan Government acted over the next few days would be significant in determining how the rest of the world treated the former pariah state. It was also disclosed that a visit to the country by the Duke of York next month could be cancelled.
Saturday, August 22, 2009 LONDON: The release of the Lockerbie bomber is casting a long shadow over relations between Britain and the United States, where senior figures in the Obama Administration have expressed dismay over the Government’s failure to take a stand. The controversy over the decision to let Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi go home to Libya was further stirred after Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, said in a Libyan television interview yesterday that his release was linked to negotiations over oil and gas contracts. Downing Street insisted that the decision — condemned by the White House yesterday as “outrageous and disgusting” — was a matter solely for the SNP-led Scottish government. However, a senior US official told media last night, “We believe it was the wrong decision — I don’t know if the UK thinks so or not. It has been extraordinarily silent on this issue.” The official suggested that it was disingenuous for the Government to claim that responsibility lay only with the devolved Scottish government because the release of al-Megrahi had wider foreign policy implications. Although diplomats say that Washington understands the constitutional independence of the Scottish Justice Ministry, some US policymakers are known to believe that the Government has deliberately “walked by the other side of the street”, possibly in the hope of earning a vast trade pay-back from a country with the biggest proven oil reserves in Africa. Shortly after the former Prime Minister Tony Blair flew to Libya to meet Colonel Gaddafi in 2007, BG Group, Shell and BP secured substantial contracts with Libya. Yesterday David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, dismissed any suggestion that al-Megrahi’s release was linked to business deals as “a slur”. In the wake of Washington’s outrage, however, he warned that the way in which the Libyan Government acted over the next few days would be significant in determining how the rest of the world treated the former pariah state. It was also disclosed that a visit to the country by the Duke of York next month could be cancelled.
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