Arabs Call for Talks, No Libya Sanctions

The Arab League early today urged the United Nations not to impose economic and military sanctions against Libya and called for further negotiations to resolve the crisis over the alleged Libyan involvement in two fatal airline bombings.

Rebuffing Libya’s demands for a solid Arab stand against implementing any eventual U.N.-imposed sanctions, Arab foreign ministers instead signaled their opposition in principle to the measures and called for the U.N. Security Council “to resolve the conflict . . . through negotiation and mediation.”

They also urged the United Nations to avoid taking any action against Tripoli until after the World Court has acted on Libya’s claim that two Libyans accused by the United States and Britain in the bombing of a Pan American World Airways jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, should stand trial in Libya.

Sunday’s debate, lasting nearly seven hours, reflected the Arab world’s growing uneasiness over the prospect of sanctions against Libya, which could have economic consequences throughout the region at a time when another Arab country, Iraq, is already the target of a massive U.N. embargo and the Arab world is seeking to find a new regional stability in the wake of the Persian Gulf War.

Yet it also signaled the Arabs’ unwillingness to defy the international community on behalf of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi--widely regarded as a nuisance by many of his Arab neighbors--especially before any sanctions have actually been imposed.

The Security Council is scheduled to act as early as today on a proposal to cut off Libya’s commercial air traffic, ban sales to that country of weapons and aircraft parts and reduce Libya’s diplomatic presence abroad in response to its failure to hand over suspects in the Lockerbie case and four others accused in the bombing of a French airliner over Africa in 1989.

Libya has said the demands are an illegal invasion of its national sovereignty and has signaled its willingness to try the suspects in Libya or through an international tribunal.

On Sunday, Libyan Arab League representative Ali Treiki accused the West of trying to topple Kadafi’s regime by refusing to reach a settlement of the issue.

Arab sources said the foreign ministers are seeking to take a position that might delay implementation of sanctions long enough to work out a compromise. In recent days, there have been quiet discussions of perhaps turning over the suspects to the Arab League, which would then give them up to the United Nations, though neither Libya nor the United States has yet agreed to any such compromise.

Although Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdel-Meguid has said that he doubts that the Arabs would adhere to sanctions against Libya, another Arab source familiar with Sunday’s discussions said it would be wrong to assume that the Arabs are ready to rally to Libya’s defense.

“Though the language in the resolution may appear to be sympathetic, all the people who are there have condemned the act itself and called for resolving it. It’s really a matter of how quickly you pursue the process,” he said.

Libya has launched a feverish diplomatic rally in the Arab world in the past several days.