Libya: We signed nuke deal with Russia

Gadhafi, Medvedev 'mulling construction of Russian naval base in Mediterranean port' (The Media Line).

By THE MEDIA LINE NEWS AGENCY
medvedev 224.88 (photo credit: AP)
medvedev 224.88
(photo credit: AP)
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during Gadhafi's first visit to Russia since 1985 over the weekend. Tripoli announced that it had signed a deal with Moscow to cooperate on nuclear civilian projects, but Russia has not confirmed the nuclear accord. Talks reportedly focused on oil, gas and arms purchases. Libyan Foreign Minister 'Abd A-Rahman Shalqam said the agreement included cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear uses, including designing and building reactors, creating nuclear fuel and cooperation in nuclear medical uses and treatment of nuclear waste. Libya is keen to expand its political and defense ties with Russia into trade and commerce, and wants to update military equipment purchased from Russia during the era of the Soviet Union. Russian news reports said the leaders were also discussing building a Russian naval base in the Mediterranean port of Benghazi. The talks come as Libya is reestablishing ties with Western powers in an effort to come in from the diplomatic cold. Libya is paying $1.5 billion in compensation to American victims of Libyan-linked terror attacks in the 1980s. The payment removes one of the major hurdles to normalizing relations between Tripoli and Washington. Last month US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a historic visit to Tripoli, the highest-ranking US official to visit Libya in more than 50 years. In 2003 Gadhafi announced his country was abandoning its Weapons of Mass Destruction program, a move that began Libya's rapprochement with the West. The release last year of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor from a Libyan jail after being accused of infecting Libyan children with AIDS was another step towards reconciliation with Western powers. At the same time, Russia is trying to establish a foothold in the Middle East and North Africa. Russia is expanding its influence in the region through defense deals, business transactions and brokering political conflicts in what some analysts say is a modern version of the Cold war with the US over influence in the Middle East. However, Oliver Miles, a former UK ambassador to Libya, says he does not see the current deals in these terms. "Of course there's competition between all powers who are trying to do business in the Libyan market," he told The Media Line. "I think the Cold War concept is out of date." Miles said the current deals should be seen in the context of Libya seeking trading partners all around the world and that the US should not necessarily be concerned. The Soviet Union was a traditional supplier of arms to Libya so it is more likely that Libya will seek business transactions with Moscow than with other parties, he said.