France may block lifting Libya sanctions
France reiterated today that new compensation by Libya for families of victims of a 1989 bombing of a French airliner was an “indispensable condition” for sanctions to be lifted against the North African country.
The French government is threatening to block a UN resolution that would lift sanctions against Libya until the families of the 170 victims of the UTA flight win a much bigger financial settlement.
Britain yesterday introduced a resolution that would immediately end a ban on arms sales and air links with Libya.
The move came after Libya last week announced a massive settlement to compensate relatives of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie.
UTA victims’ families and the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi are in talks towards a broader compensation accord than one they concluded in 1999.
France wants a UTA agreement to be on a par with the Lockerbie settlement, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo said.
“It is clear that a solution founded on the principal of equity constitutes, for France, an indispensable condition for the indefinite lifting of sanctions against Libya,” she said.
Congo, which lost 40 of its citizens on the flight, has backed France’s tough line on reparations from Libya.
Six Libyans – including Gaddafi’s brother-in-law – were convicted in absentia and sentenced to life in prison by a French court in March 1999 for bombing the UTA flight.
