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Police and investigators look at
what remains of the flight deck of Pan Am 103 on a field in
Lockerbie, Scotland, in this 1988
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By KIRIT RADIA
May 30, 2008
The
agreement would lump all outstanding claims together in an effort to
settle them all, once and for all. It remains unclear when the talks
will begin or how long they will last.
"Both
parties affirmed their desire to work together to resolve all
outstanding claims in good faith and expeditiously through the
establishment of a fair compensation mechanism," a joint statement
issued late Friday said.
The
outstanding payments have held up further rapprochement between the
United States and the former pariah country, in large part due to recent
legislation passed by Congress that withholds funding for a new U.S.
embassy in Tripoli until the payments go through.
Libya
settled a case in U.S. courts with the terror victims of the 1988 Pan Am
flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. Each victim's
family was to receive $10 million over three payments, the last $2
million of which was due when Libya was removed from the U.S. State
Department's State Sponsor of Terrorism list. That happened in 2006, but
was technically beyond the timeline articulated in the court agreement.
Jim
Kreindler, a lawyer for the Lockerbie families, told ABC News Thursday
that his clients just want their remaining payment and would welcome any
mechanism to arrive at that goal.
Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs C. David Welch led
the U.S. delegation at talks in London with his Libyan counterparts, the
most overt American government involvement in terror reparations with
Libya to date.
The
settlement talks will seek to resolve outstanding payments for terror
victims including those in the Lockerbie bombing, as well as others from
a 1986 bombing at a disco in Berlin in which two U.S. servicemen were
killed.
Sen.
Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who has championed the cases of U.S. victims
of Libyan terror, recently pushed through legislation that would allow
terror victims to seize assets of the country in the United States.
Libya has sought to shield itself from those claims.
A
senior State Department official, speaking to reporters on the condition
of anonymity before the deal was announced, said this would be a
comprehensive mechanism that may also settle outstanding claims by
Libyans whose relatives were killed in U.S. air strikes in Libya in the
1980s.
The
official said the United States feels the air strikes were legitimate
self-defense. The official said that it's unclear how those payments
might be made but added the money likely would come from private sources
rather than U.S. government funds. "The goal is to get something fair
and, if possible, comprehensive," the senior official said.
The
United States established relations with Libya in 2006, just years after
Tripoli agreed to abandon its nuclear ambitions in 2003.
Source:
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