Rice meets Kadhafi on historic Libya visit
September 7, 2008 TRIPOLI (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held a landmark meeting with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi to seal a reconciliation with the former US enemy.
Rice said Saturday before leaving that the United States and Libya had decided “to move forward in a positive way” and deal “as well as we can with issues of the past.”
The first US secretary of state to visit Tripoli in 55 years exchanged gifts with Kadhafi " he gave her a lute instrument and she presented a shield with the department’s coat of arms.
But the tensions have not completely disappeared.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Mohammed Shalgam said his country does not need “pressure” or “lectures” on human rights, one of the issues raised by Rice in talks.
Rice declared however: “After many, many years it is a good thing that the US and Libya found a way forward.” She praised some “strategic choices” made by Libya.
“This is a good time for a constructive relationship between the US and Libya to emerge,” Rice said. Shalgam said the world has change and Rice’s groundbreaking visit to Libya was proof of the new mood.
“The time of confrontation is over. There may still be differences of opinion but this will not endanger the relationship.”
Rice earlier described her brief visit as “historic”.
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