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US, UK and Libya finalising Lockerbie compensation deal
Washington, Mar 12: The United States, Britain and Libya are close to reaching agreement on a multibillion-dollar compensation deal for the relatives of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, senior US officials have said.
Washington, Mar 12: The United States, Britain and Libya are close to reaching agreement on a multibillion-dollar compensation deal for the relatives of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, senior US officials have said.
Some of the families of the 270 victims said they understood that a deal had been reached but the US officials, as well as the state department, said reports of a final agreement were premature.
"The deal is that they are close to a deal," one official told AFP yesterday on condition of anonymity. "It's in its very latest, final discussions."
That official spoke as senior diplomats from the three nations met yesterday in London to try to finalise the deal, which would see Libya freed from remaining UN sanctions and possibly dropped from the us list of "state sponsors of terrorism."
That official stressed, however, that any agreement reached at the London meeting would have to be signed off on by numerous top authorities in the three nations as well as run by the families of the victims.
A second senior US official described the progress made as having been "good" and relating to Libya's accepting responsibility for the bombing over Pan Am 103 that went down over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland.
But that official told reporters it was "premature" to say that an agreement had been reached.
State department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the London talks had been "useful" and that "progress" towards a deal had been made, but declined to confirm reports from Britain that an agreement had been reached.
Bureau Report
Some of the families of the 270 victims said they understood that a deal had been reached but the US officials, as well as the state department, said reports of a final agreement were premature.
"The deal is that they are close to a deal," one official told AFP yesterday on condition of anonymity. "It's in its very latest, final discussions."
That official spoke as senior diplomats from the three nations met yesterday in London to try to finalise the deal, which would see Libya freed from remaining UN sanctions and possibly dropped from the us list of "state sponsors of terrorism."
That official stressed, however, that any agreement reached at the London meeting would have to be signed off on by numerous top authorities in the three nations as well as run by the families of the victims.
A second senior US official described the progress made as having been "good" and relating to Libya's accepting responsibility for the bombing over Pan Am 103 that went down over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland.
But that official told reporters it was "premature" to say that an agreement had been reached.
State department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the London talks had been "useful" and that "progress" towards a deal had been made, but declined to confirm reports from Britain that an agreement had been reached.
Bureau Report