Thatcher Rejects Libya Sanctions, Reprisal Attacks

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Friday repeatedly rejected the idea of joining the United States in imposing economic sanctions on Libya and characterized the notion of military reprisal raids as a violation of international law.

Speaking to a group of American correspondents at her Downing Street offices, Thatcher said that her opposition to punitive sanctions is based on historical evidence that they are ineffective.

“I don’t think sanctions work,” she said. “ They only work if you go to the United Nations and get full agreement, and even then there are problems.”

Her consistent, categorical rejection of trade sanctions came as the Reagan Administration stepped up efforts to persuade West European governments to go along with U.S. economic sanctions announced earlier this week against the regime of Col. Moammar Kadafi.

Although Britain’s trade with Libya is far less than that of some other European countries, notably Italy and West Germany, Thatcher is regarded as Reagan’s strongest personal ally among European leaders. As such, her remarks are seen as among the strongest evidence yet that the United States will likely win little support for its measures from North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies.

The Reagan Administration imposed U.S. trade and financial sanctions against Libya after announcing that it had “irrefutable proof” that Kadafi backed the Palestinian terrorist group of Abu Nidal, whom Washington and Jerusalem hold responsible for murderous attacks on the Rome and Vienna airports Dec. 27. Reagan urged West European countries to join in the sanctions to make them more effective.

The airport assaults, directed at the check-in counters of El Al Israeli Airlines, left 15 travelers dead, five of them Americans.

U.S. Official Due Next Week

Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead is scheduled to visit London and other European capitals next week in an effort to persuade the NATO nations to participate in the trade boycott.

(In The Hague, Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers was quoted by news agencies as saying that European Communities foreign ministers are expected to hold a special meeting on the U.S. boycott call. He said the Common Market ministers might agree to impose an arms embargo on Libya but that they are extremely unlikely to back economic sanctions.)

In rejecting the notion of sanctions, Thatcher twice referred at length to Britain’s experience in Rhodesia, where 13 years of a U.N.-backed trade embargo against Ian Smith’s renegade government made almost no visible impact on the African country’s economy.

“They only work if they are adopted 100%, and I don’t know of any case where they have been adopted 100%,” she said. “I wish we could all get together against nations which have terrorist camps and which practice terrorism and supply armaments to terrorists, but at the moment I see no such possibility of that.”

Recalls 1984 Incident

During the 75-minute meeting, she noted that Britain broke diplomatic relations with Libya and stopped all sales of military equipment to Kadafi in April, 1984, after diplomats at the Libyan Embassy in London fired automatic weapons into a crowd of anti-Kadafi demonstrators outside the embassy building. A woman police officer was killed in the shooting.

“You don’t have to tell me about Libyan terrorism,” she said. “We’ve seen it first-hand in the streets of London.”

However, she said she had no plans to take any further measures against Libya, repeating her conviction that economic sanctions are ineffective.

Thatcher also came out strongly against suggestions of reprisal attacks by governments against countries supporting terrorism.

‘Much Greater Chaos’

“Reprisals strikes are a violation of international law,” she said. “Once one failed to observe international boundaries, then I think you would be making much greater chaos.”

On domestic issues, Thatcher refused to discuss in detail the events surrounding Thursday’s dramatic resignation of Michael Heseltine, her defense secretary, who stormed out of a Cabinet meeting and later accused her of running the Cabinet in an autocratic, heavy-handed manner.

The Times of London called the manner of Heseltine’s departure “unprecedented this century.”

In brief opening remarks at Friday’s meeting, Thatcher said she was sad to lose Heseltine but added that the incident is now over.

Thatcher rejected Heseltine’s accusation that she muzzled her ministers.

“We’ve got a style of great discussion and great debate (within the Cabinet),” she said. “That’s always been characteristic of my style of government.”