Craxi Warns Libya but Rules Out Economic Sanctions

Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi warned Libya on Saturday to abandon its “threats of military and terrorist actions” but dismissed economic sanctions against the Tripoli regime as “totally useless” in the struggle to end Libyan-sponsored terrorism.

Craxi condemned Tuesday’s bombing of Libyan targets by U.S. warplanes, saying that “any bombs which provoke the deaths of innocent people must be condemned.”

In the place of American military action, he urged pressure on the Soviet Union to push Libya into abandoning its “threat of war.”

The Italian leader dismissed economic measures, such as the longstanding U.S. call for sanctions against Libya, but he hinted that Italy may soon cut back on Libya’s diplomatic staff in Rome, and possibly that of some other countries, as a measure to contain the threat of terrorism.

Conceding that American evidence linking Libya directly to the April 5 bombing of a West Berlin discotheque patronized by U.S. servicemen is “absolutely convincing,” Craxi said he wants “a guarantee” that the diplomatic immunity of suspect embassies “is not abused.”

U.S. intelligence services intercepted telephone messages between Libya and its East Berlin embassy concerning the nightclub bombing, which killed an American serviceman and a Turkish woman and injured more than 200 other people, many of them Americans.

“We maintain that economic sanctions are totally useless,” Craxi said. “I think there should be more caution in the system of diplomatic representation of Libya, and this caution doesn’t only regard Libya. . . . There will be a rethinking in European circles of diplomatic relations with Libya and other states who are under suspicion as Libya is.”

Italian officials believe that Syria and Iran are as guilty as Libya in sponsoring international terrorism.

Stops Short of Threat

While the Socialist prime minister vigorously protested Libya’s attempt to hit the remote Italian Mediterranean island of Lampedusa with two Soviet-made Scud guided missiles hours after the American bombing raids on Tripoli and Benghazi, he stopped short of directly threatening military retaliation.

But during a press conference in his office here, Craxi said another direct attack by Libya would provoke “more than just a protest note”

such as the one Italy sent to Tripoli after the Scud attack.

He said the unsuccessful attack against the Italian island--situated in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Libya and the site since 1972 of a U.S. Coast Guard navigational station--had led to a “clear and unequivocal order to our armed forces for the defense of national territory, in whatever point to whatever specific threat of attack.”

Italy should immediately reassert control over the island, he said.

But Craxi added that “we do not ever want to find ourselves in a condition where we need to react using military force with all the pain that this would necessarily imply, and that is why we have invited the government of Tripoli to show caution, reflection and responsibility.

“We need a sort of general cease-fire; otherwise, there will be a tremendously dangerous situation,” Craxi said, calling for “an international effort of great proportions” to restore equilibrium to the Mediterranean region.

“Further military action would be of proportions difficult to calculate and consequences difficult to foresee,” he said.

The Italian prime minister dismissed suggestions that Italy and other European countries have not done enough to combat terrorism.

“The United States has never had to deal with terrorism at home,” he said. “What would they do if they had the same situation as Italy had. . . ? This is a type of war which you cannot win on conventional military grounds. . . . For some time I have been stressing the importance of getting to those states responsible for attitudes of tolerance and complicity with terrorism. I don’t feel that because of our prudence we should accept accusations of cowardice.”

Craxi was skittish concerning Italy’s economic ties with Libya, which imports almost $2 billion worth of Italian goods a year. He noted that “Italy is co-proprietor of oil interests in Libya. . . . I don’t see why we should put economic interests at risk and worsen the situation.”

He also noted that about 8,000 Italians are regularly employed in Libya, although the number has been halved to about 4,000 since the Gulf of Sidra crisis several weeks ago.