Kadafi Asked Mediation, Austrian Says
Former Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky--said to be the Western leader closest to Col. Moammar Kadafi--said Monday that the Libyan leader had asked him to mediate the Gulf of Sidra dispute with the United States, but the Reagan Administration refused to negotiate.
Kreisky, chancellor from 1970 to 1983 and still active in Austrian politics, said that while the Reagan Administration refused to do so, “it is possible to negotiate with Kadafi; he accepts advice.”
Kreisky said Kadafi could be persuaded to recognize a 12-mile limit to territorial waters in return for limits on the time foreign ships stayed in the Gulf of Sidra.
“I believe Kadafi would recognize the international conventions if the U.S. would not stay in the Sidra waters for more than one day,” he said.
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