Wednesday 11 March 2009

Thaw spurs prospect of arms sales to Libya

Newly rehabilitated from its pariah status, Libya is establishing military ties with the US that could lead to the sale of lethal weapons to the north African country.

In a remarkable sign of the degree of rapprochement after four decades of open hostility during which the US carried out military strikes against the regime of Muammer Gaddafi, Gene Cretz, the US ambassador to Tripoli, told the Financial Times that the new military relationship would begin with training programmes, followed by the sale of non-lethal weaponry.

Then “at some point, if both sides want it . . . we would hope that [the sale of lethal weapons] would be a culmination of our military relationship”, he said.

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