US opens trade office in Libya to boost ties
TRIPOLI (AFP)
The United States has opened a trade office in Libya to boost economic ties with the oil-rich state, the official JANA news agency reported on Monday.
It said the U.S. assistant secretary for trade, Israel Hernandez, was at the official opening on Sunday with Libyan government representatives as well as businessmen from both countries.
The opening, exactly one month after a landmark visit to Libya by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, aims to ramp up commerce between the two countries, Hernandez said, according to JANA.
U.S. -Libya ties were suspended in 1981 when Washington put Tripoli on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Libya was forced even further into isolation after the bombing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
In August, the Libyan and U.S. governments reached an agreement on a plan to compensate U.S. victims of Libyan attacks and Libyan victims of U.S. reprisals, clearing the way for the first visit by a secretary of state in 55 years.
The turning point came when Libyan leader Muammar Qaddhafi in December 2003 announced that he giving up weapons of mass destruction programs following secret talks with the United States and Britain.
The U.S. Congress, however, has been blocking the appointment of an ambassador to Tripoli until all American victims of Libyan attacks have been compensated.