TRIPOLI // With three weeks left before he heads to New York for a UN summit, US officials are warning Libya's flamboyant leader, Muammar Qadafi, not to try American patience. In the Libyan capital, Tripoli, sparkling with lights marking 40 years since Mr Qadafi toppled the country's pro-western monarchy, many see his New York trip as evidence that the former diplomatic outcast is back on the world stage and mending ties with Washington.
"Libyans are very enthusiastic about it," said Mustafa Fetouri, a political analyst and professor of business management at Tripoli's Academy of Graduate Studies. "They view it as a big victory for Qadafi, and for Libya." "All Libyans are happy that Libya is opening to the world, especially to America," said Emad Bensaleh, 27, a dentist, while sipping a fruit cocktail at a cafe in Ben Achour, an up-and-coming Tripoli neighbourhood. "Just the fact that Qadafi can give a speech in New York, you really see the countries drawing closer together."
On September 23, Mr Qadafi will address the UN General Assembly, presided over by Ali Abdessalam Treki, a Libyan diplomat. But with the United States holding the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council and with the US president, Barack Obama, chairing a summit on nuclear weapons sparks could fly. US officials have condemned what they consider the hero's welcome accorded the Lockerbie bombing convict, Abdel Basset al Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer released from Scottish prison last month.
Of the 270 people killed when Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down by a bomb over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988, 189 were US citizens. The attack was blamed on Libyan agents. International sanctions were piled on the country, which had supported numerous militant groups since the 1970s. In 1999, Libya began rapprochement with the West by delivering al Megrahi and a fellow Lockerbie suspect for trial by a Scottish court convened in the Netherlands. The other man was acquitted, but al Megrahi was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 27 years.
Mr Qadafi has always maintained al Megrahi's innocence, however, and vowed to bring him home. Last month, Scottish authorities released al Megrahi, who has terminal prostate cancer. The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, has been fending off accusations that al Megrahi was traded for greater access to Libya's oil reserves - Africa's largest, with 44 billion barrels. US leaders were incensed to see al Megrahi escorted home by Mr Qadafi's son, Saif al Islam, and met by cheering crowds at the airport in Tripoli.
"This is a very raw and sensitive subject for all Americans," the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told reporters last Wednesday. How Mr Qadafi "chooses to comport himself when he attends the General Assembly and the Security Council in New York has the potential to either further aggravate those feelings and emotions or not". Libya counters that al Megrahi's welcome was modest by Libyan standards, arguing that no officials were on the tarmac when he arrived.
"Through the prism of the western media, Americans saw a terrorist being given a hero's welcome by a country eager to celebrate mass murder," wrote Libya's ambassador to Washington, Ali Aujali, in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. "Libyans saw a dying man - believed to be innocent by his countrymen and many others worldwide - being embraced by his family." "By local standards, I would not say it was low key, but it was not big," Prof Fetouri said. "If it had been a pre-planned celebration, it would have been huge."
Although Ms Rice has cautioned Mr Qadafi to keep his address focused on the UN summit, his presence in New York could provide a chance for the Libyan leader to attempt badly needed PR with the US public, Prof Fetouri said. "I'm worried that Americans still see Libya as a terrorist state," said Mr Bensaleh, the Tripoli dentist. "Maybe the leader's trip to New York can help change that." Corruption, high unemployment and allegations of human rights abuses continue to dog Libya, but Libyans are rejoicing at their country's opening as sanctions have lifted over the past decade. Skyscrapers are rising along Tripoli's waterfront, foreign goods have appeared in the shops and foreign companies are queuing up for oil and construction contracts.
Meanwhile, Mr Qadafi is chairing the African Union, while Libya is on the UN Security Council, presiding the General Assembly and has re-established relations with its former adversary, the United States. "I would like to see the two countries deal with one another as equals," said Mohammed, a Tripoli bookshop owner who declined to give his surname. "And I want Qadafi to urge a more just and peacemaking foreign policy from the US, especially towards the Muslim world."
"You see Libyan officials meeting people like Condoleezza Rice, and it just feels great," said Mr Bensaleh, referring to a visit to Libya last year by the then-US secretary of state. "The governments may still have their differences, but there's nothing preventing Americans and Libyans from being friends." jthorne@thenational.ae