HRES 246 IH

Expressing the sense of the House denouncing and rejecting a resolution adopted by Foreign Ministers of the Arab League urging the easing of United Nations sanctions against Libya which were imposed because of Libya's refusal to surrender individuals on its territory who are wanted in connection with the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

Expressing the sense of the House denouncing and rejecting a resolution adopted by Foreign Ministers of the Arab League urging the easing of United Nations sanctions against Libya which were imposed because of Libya's refusal to surrender individuals on its territory who are wanted in connection with the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103.

Whereas the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 748 on March 31, 1992, imposing an embargo on the sale of arms and on international flights against the state of Libya and in Security Council Resolution 883 on November 11, 1993, further tightened economic sanctions against Libya for its refusal to surrender individuals suspected in connection with the terrorist bombing in 1988 of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 individuals were killed and the terrorist bombing in 1989 of the French ATA flight 772 over Niger, in which 160 individuals were killed;

Whereas the Security Council had repeatedly voted to maintain these international sanctions against Libya in view of the persistent refusal of the Government of Libya to hand over for trial the two individuals currently in Libya who are accused of involvement in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am flight 103 and ATA flight 772;

Whereas the United Nations sanctions provide for legitimate humanitarian flights to and from Libya for medical and other reasons, and flights of a religious nature to permit Libyan residents to participate in the Hadj have been approved routinely under the United Nations sanctions;

Whereas Libya has repeatedly violated the United Nations sanctions, most egregiously when an aircraft carrying Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar el-Kaddafi, landed in Cairo, Egypt, in July 1996 in order for the Libyan leader to participate in an Arab summit meeting; and

Whereas the Foreign Ministers of the Arab League meeting in Cairo on September 21, 1997, adopted a resolution in which the Ministers invited `Arab countries to undertake measures to ease the severity of the embargo imposed on Libya until a final, peaceful, and just solution to the crisis is reached', `to lift measures freezing Libyan accounts involving money, the source of which is other than the selling or exporting of oil', `to support Libya's right to obtain suitable compensation for human and material damages and losses it sustains as a result of pertinent United Nations Security Council resolutions', and to exempt from sanctions Libyan `flights related to participation of the Libyan political leadership and official delegations in regional and international meetings': Now therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) denounces and rejects in the strongest terms the resolution adopted on September 21, 1997, by the Foreign Ministers of the Arab League in their conference in Cairo which invites Arab states to take action to ease United Nations sanctions against Libya;

(2) reaffirms the commitment of the United States to support United Nations sanctions against Libya until the two individuals suspected in connection with the terrorist bombing of Pam Am flight 103 and UTA flight 772 are turned over to appropriate judicial authorities in the United States or the United Kingdom and France as required by United Nations Security Council resolutions;

(3) calls upon the President to suspend all United States assistance to all countries which violate United Nations Security Council sanctions against Libya; and

(4) requests that the Secretary of State transmit a copy of this resolution to the government of each country which is a member of the Arab League and express to each government the profound concern of the United States about efforts to undermine the international fight against terrorism by weakening or violating sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council.