LIBYA: No handshake as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi

Record ID: 699771

  • Title: LIBYA: No handshake as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi
  • Date: 6th September 2008
  • Summary: (BN15) TRIPOLI, LIBYA (SEPTEMBER 5, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS LIBYAN LEADER MUAMMAR GADDAFI WAITING FOR U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) RICE ENTERS MEETING AREA GADDAFI AND RICE MEET BUT DO NOT SHAKE HANDS GADDAFI MEETS U.S. OFFICIALS PARTIES SIT DOWN FOR DISCUSSIONS/TALKS MEDIA ARE USHERED OUT OF ROOM
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2008 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA5OC22161AO4DL2EE14ZQNZY1L
  • Story Text: Top U.S. diplomat Condoleezza Rice met Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Friday on a historic trip to the north African country she said was proof that Washington had no "permanent enemies".
    Rice is making the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to the oil producing state since 1953, a move intended to end decades of enmity and violence five years after Libya gave up its weapons of mass destruction program in 2003.
    The meeting began when Gaddafi, wearing a white robe decorated with a broach in the shape of Africa, welcomed Rice and her aides at a room lined with armchairs in a building in a government compound in central Tripoli.
    There was no handshake between the two. As Rice entered the room, Gaddafi raised a hand to his chest in a traditional gesture of welcome. He then shook hands with members of her staff.
    U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was the last top U.S.
    diplomat to visit Tripoli and made the trip in May 1953, before Rice was born.
    Libya is a major oil exporter.
    Rice also met Libya's Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam and at a joint news conference seemed happy with how the relationship between their countries .
    U.S. and Libyan relations are "off to a good start,"
    Condoleezza Rice said.
    "It is only a start but after many, many years, I think it is a very good thing that the United States and Libya are establishing a way forward."
    Rice's visit to Tripoli is a tangible sign of warming U.S.-Libya relations after years of enmity, which began to ebb when Tripoli gave up its weapons of mass destruction program in 2003.
    The U.S. secretary of state said Washington and Tripoli were working on a "framework" agreement to improve the climate for trade and investment between the two countries, saying many U.S. companies are eager to invest in Libya.
    She also said the two countries will soon sign an agreement on educational and cultural exchanges, allowing more Libyan students to study in the United States and more Americans to visit Libya.
    After going to Tripoli, Rice is set to visit Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco before returning to Washington on Sept. 7.
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