Libya wants to open a new chapter in relations with the US by tapping into a major government fund to invest in US companies and sending thousands of students to study in the US, the son of Libya’s leader said.
In an interview on Friday, Seif al-Islam Qaddafi also outlined plans for Libya to move from the one-man rule of his father, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, to a constitutional democracy as part of the country’s modernization process.
The younger Qaddafi said he expected a constitution providing for democratic elections to be adopted by September next year — the 40th anniversary of the 1969 revolution that brought his father to power.
He said he also expected Libya to modify its central government to a model similar to the US federal government, with strong regional and local governments.
Seif al-Islam Qaddafi, who was a key figure in normalizing Libya’s relations with the US, left the political stage in August and is on a private visit to the US. But his visit had definite political overtones, including meetings with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, other administration officials and many federal legislators.
It also coincided with Friday’s confirmation of Gene Cretz as the first US ambassador to Libya in 36 years. Seif al-Islam Qaddafi was in Washington on Thursday when the Senate approved the appointment after it was verified families had received full compensation from Libya for the loss of relatives in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The bombing killed 180 Americans.
This week’s events capped a halting, five-year rapprochement between the two countries that began in 2003 when the Libyan leader renounced terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The process gained traction in August when the US and Libya agreed on the compensation deal.
The younger Qaddafi said his main message was: “We are good people, and nice. We’ll make business. We’ll invest. We have friends here in the states and we have a new chapter in the relations.”
He said Libya’s sovereign wealth fund, a government-owned investment fund of almost US$100 billion, “wants to invest here in America” despite the current financial crisis. He didn’t say how much Libya would invest.
Because the fund is new, he explained, “we avoided that tsunami, the big wave. We escaped that risk, and now we are in good shape to invest right now.”
Libya hopes that some of the US businesses it invests in will transfer technology to the North African country “like other countries are doing,” he said.
Libya’s other major focus is promoting education links with the US and it expects to sign a cultural and educational agreement with the US government next month, he said.
“We hope to send ... thousands of our students to study here. And also, we are talking right now with many American schools and universities to come and operate in Libya,” he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was