Libya - Foreign policy

Qadhafi's decision to finally allow the extradition of the Lockerbie bombing suspects has brightened his relations somewhat with most Western powers. The UN Security Council suspended the 1992 sanctions, but continued to insist on progress reports regarding Libya's involvement with international terrorism and compensation for the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. Since one of the men accused of involvement with the bombing was found guilty in 2001, Libya's responsibility for compensating the victims has yet to be resolved. The proposed settlement for Libya's financial restitution to the victims' families is for $10 million per family, or $2.7 billion, and the U.S. government has also demanded that Libya officially acknowledge responsibility for the bombing, which, as of early 2003, it was unwilling to do. These two conditions must be met before the United States will agree to the restoration of relations with Libya. Britain resumed full diplomatic relations with Libya in July 1999, ending 15 years of broken official contact. Relations with the United States remain strained, but after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001, Qadhafi immediately condemned the attacks and offered the support of his intelligence services in uncovering those behind the attacks. This led to high-level secret talks between U.S. and Libyan officials, held in London. The United States retains many of its sanctions against the country, though it has eased travel restrictions and has allowed for a limited number of U.S. companies to make investments in the oil sector.

Relations with Italy, Libya's former colonial ruler, meanwhile, remain strong despite Qadhafi's demands that Rome pay Tripoli a large indemnity for what he labeled as one of the darkest chapters in Libyan history. Libya is Italy's largest oil supplier.

Egypt considers Qadhafi's government as an important force against Islamist groups in the region. Though trying to maintain good relations with his Arab neighbors, Qadhafi has turned in recent years away from the Arab world towards an identification of Libya with the African continent. In early 1998 he initiated formation of an economic and cultural organization, the Community of the Sahel-Saharan States (COMESSA), which included the countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Sudan. In December 1998, the state-controlled radio changed its name from "Voice of the Greater Arab Homeland" to "Voice of Africa." He has even gone so far as to suggest that Libya should become a "black" country and has urged Libyans to marry black Africans. He has received many sub-Saharan African leaders for official visits to Tripoli and is active in mediation efforts in various conflicts on the continent (including those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierre Leone, and the Sudan). In May 2000, Qadhafi sent military forces into the Central African Republic to counter an attempted coup. South Africa's former president and long-time political prisoner Nelson Mandela played an integral part in persuading Qadhafi to shift his focus from the Arab world to the African, and has referred to the Libyan leader as "one of the revolutionary icons of our time."

In summer 2001, Qadhafi attended a meeting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Zambia at which the Pan-African organization changed its name to the African Union (AU) and proposed more closely modeling itself after the European Union. Qadhafi offered to host the AU's Parliament in Libya, though his offer was rejected.

Qadhafi has also spoken out on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Once advocating pushing the "Zionists" into the sea, he now favors a one-state solution where Jews and Palestinians can live together in peace. The state could be called "Israetine," he suggested in January 2003.

Qadhafi's relations with other Arab countries were strained in early 2003. At an Arab League Summit held in March, Qadhafi threatened to pull Libya out of the League after being insulted by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah due to a disagreement on Arab states' positions on the looming war in Iraq. Qadhafi had accused Saudi Arabia of being ready to "strike an alliance with the devil," meaning the United States. Qadhafi warned U.S. president George W. Bush that if he went ahead with a war in Iraq, "you'll only make Osama bin Laden that much stronger, for the only interests you'll be serving are neither yours nor ours, but his." He claimed terrorism would sharply rise, and that other Gulf, North African, and Middle Eastern states would be subject to attack by the United States, a situation that would present them with "a new form of neocolonialism."