UK opposed Clinton’s call for UN push against Qadhafi: records

LONDON: Britain opposed a bid by US president Bill Clinton to expand UN sanctions on Libya under dictator Moamer Qadhafi, while seeking to extradite the Lockerbie bombers, previously secret government papers showed on Wednesday.

Cabinet Office correspondence, released by the National Archives covering the years 1995 and 1996, showed the UK was concerned at the possible impact of expanded Security Council sanctions on Britain’s $230 million annual exports to Libya, especially of oil-producing equipment.

The prime minister at the time, John Major, wrote to Clinton in late 1995 dissuading him from a new resolution, after the US leader had appealed for Britain’s support. On December 21, 1988, a bomb exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 259 passengers and crew, and 11 people on the ground.