U.S. Restores Full Diplomatic Ties With Libya

Move Sends a Signal To Iran, North Korea

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The United States restored full diplomatic relations with Libya yesterday, marking the end of a quarter-century of enmity and signaling to Iran and North Korea that similar rewards await countries that scrap their weapons of mass destruction.

Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi agreed to end his nation's nascent chemical and nuclear weapons programs in late 2003, capping years of talks between Tripoli and Washington over how Libya could end two decades of international isolation. Libya also took responsibility that year for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay as much as $10 million to the family of each of the 270 dead.

Remaining On Terror List

Reasons the United States gives for keeping five countries on its terrorism blacklist.

IRAN
Х Most active state sponsor of terrorism.
Х Encourages militant groups.
Х Increasingly assists militants in Iraq.
Х Declines to bring to justice senior al- Qaeda members it has held since 2003.
Х Provides Palestinian militants with funding, training and weapons.
Х Is a particular concern because of its nuclear program.

CUBA
Х Opposes U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Х Does not track or block militants' assets.
Х Invests heavily in biotechnology; there is some dispute about the existence of an offensive biological weapons program.
Х Grants U.S. fugitives safe haven.
Х Maintains close ties with other designated state sponsors of terrorism and has provided safe haven to militants.

NORTH KOREA
Х Has abducted several Japanese nationals and returned only some to their homeland.
Х Is not known to have sponsored any acts designated as terrorism by the United States since the bombing of a Korean Airlines flight in 1987.

SUDAN
Х Continued to cooperate in the fight against terrorism in 2005, but some areas of concern remain.
Х Hosted al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, which weighs heavily in the assessment of Sudan.
Х Has caused concern with its handling of internal rebel movements.
Х Has been used as a transit point for Sudanese and foreign nationals who have been captured as foreign fighters in Iraq.

SYRIA
Х Provides political and material support to Hezbollah and Palestinian militant groups.
Х Has been implicated in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri.
Х Ended intelligence cooperation with the United States.

SOURCES: Reuters, State Department Reports on Terrorism 2005, published in April 2006  |  The Washington Post

U.S. Restores Full Diplomatic Ties With Libya

Move Sends a Signal To Iran, North Korea

Chronology

Remaining On Terror List

Who's Blogging?

U.S. Restores Full Diplomatic Ties With Libya

Move Sends a Signal To Iran, North Korea

Chronology

Remaining On Terror List

Who&apos;s Blogging?

Who's Blogging?